Montgomerie celebrates a birdie

Colin Montgomerie arrived at St Andrews determined to shake a monkey, as well as a Tiger, off his back.

And by the time he sank a 25-foot putt to birdie the 18th hole for a solid third-round 70 to lie three shots behind leader Tiger Woods he was well on the way to doing so.

So often Montgomerie has been halfway to heaven after the second round in The Open championship only to end up in the sort of despair so unique to this son of Troon that it should be sewn into a special black tartan.

In 2001 he led at the beginning of the third round only to slump to 13th. In 2002 he was two behind and then shot an 84. And last year he was three behind at half-time only to finish 25th.

Many chances, none taken.

He still has much work to do when he goes out on nine under par with Retief Goosen in the final round on Sunday, three behind leader Woods and one behind Jose Maria Olazabal.

But, somehow, you sense this opportunity means even more to a man who so recently went through the trauma of an acrimonious divorce from ex-wife Eimear and the trials of the 'Jakarta affair' when he incorrectly placed his ball after a rain-break, prompting his peers to question his integrity.

How much it meant could be gauged from the two-and-a-half hours he spent on the putting ground before his round began, honing the stroke of his new, heavier putter which had served him so well in the first two rounds.

It was a day for meticulous attention to detail, an afternoon when the St Andrews breeze was a good deal more capricious than it had been.

It was also an afternoon when 40,000 spectators were determined to carry Montgomerie along on a magic carpet of affection.

"C'mon Colin!" and "We love you Monty!" they cried and the American reporter who had asked Montgomerie whether he thought he or Woods would get the most support must have been rueing his naivety.

Montgomerie's feet barely touched the turf down the first fairway such was the decibel level.

His 15-foot birdie putt trundled just by, another at the second did the same. The latter was significant, not because of Monty's consistency, but because it came seconds before Woods missed from five feet to record his first bogey for 22 holes.

Psychologically it was Woods' first sign of weakness in a tournament which otherwise many reckoned he was back to the player he was in 2000.

Another came at the 412 yards par four when the Tiger line ended at the bottom of a gorse bush in an unplayable lie and he was forced to take a penalty drop.

Suddenly only two shots separated them. Maybe it was the white shirt Woods had chosen for the third round, rather than the clinical black or the power red, but the aura was missing and the words of Montgomerie were beginning to look a little wide of the mark.

"If Tiger Woods plays the way that Tiger Woods can play around this type of golf course then I would have to agree with a number of players that second place is what we're doing," said Montgomerie after the second round.

"We are watching here a unique golfer on a unique golf course."

Actually, for much of this afternoon we were witnessing Montgomerie with his business head on as it rarely has been at The Open, staring the Tiger in the eye. Oh, how his fans loved that.

The fact is Montgomerie has never won a tournament when Woods has been in the field. In competition, other than the Ryder Cup, Monty has always appeared to wilt under the intimidation.

That was the case in 1997 when Montgomerie was paired with Woods in the third round of the US Masters.

He went on to shoot 74, while Woods returned a 65. Twenty-four hours later Montgomerie shot an 80 while Woods went on to win his first major by 12 strokes.

The experience was all Montgomerie's and all painful.

The action was tighter but the result the same at the Deutche Bank Open in 2002 when Woods won at the third hole of a play-off.

And while Monty has been on the winning pairing three times against Woods in Ryder Cup action, it is a recognised fact that the world's greatest golfer is not a team player, especially when paired as ludicrously as last September in Detroit with Phil Mickelson.

Montgomerie insists this championship is not "fun".

"This is a job of work and it's business, very much business," he said.

But "fun" was on the agenda when consecutive birdies arrived at the ninth and 10th, this time courtesy of a superb iron to four feet.

True, there was a hiccup when Monty bogeyed the 11th and shipped a shot via the pot bunker at the 17th, but the rest of the round was pretty much flawlessly negotiated with successive pars receiving one ovation after another until that final wonderful 25-foot birdie had the galleries whooping in celebration.

It all left Montgomerie in touching, if not pouring, distance of the Claret Jug with the saltires fluttering expectantly. Montgomerie may or may not win his first major here at St Andrews - but this afternoon I swear a monkey jumped from his shoulders.