ONLY an inveterate fantasist could have envisaged the day when Colin Montgomerie would be proud of a five-over par 75 on the second day of the Open championship, in the process avoiding the ignominy of missing the cut by the narrowest margin.
But
the seemingly impossible occurred at Royal Birkdale yesterday, when the most volatile player in the game purred like a contented cat over a performance whose trials and tribulations – as well as demonstrations of nerve and bloody-minded tenacity – could not possibly be captured in a line on a scorecard.
Having dropped seven strokes in three holes by the time his second round was only a third completed, Montgomerie exhibited remarkable powers of recovery and previously untested mental fortitude to be two-under par for the remaining 12 holes. His elation was understandable.
"When you are in the circumstances I was in after the sixth hole, seven shots gone, ten over par and heading out of the tournament, you can bet there is mental turmoil," said Montgomerie. "How to combat it? Well, I didn't know, because you can't practise that.
"I mean, I've never gone double, triple, double bogey in three holes before, so I had no experience of handling that. Fortunately, I hit a great iron from the seventh tee, nearly holed it, and tapped in for birdie. That left me on nine-over and knowing that another birdie somewhere would see me safely through to the weekend. By the finish, it had all come right and I was proud of having played the last 12 holes in two under."
As beginnings go, the one that tormented Montgomerie could be compared to the early days of musketry. A few stray, damaging explosions had to be endured before the mechanism was made safer and more reliable.
A double-bogey six at the 451-yard third hole was the first hint of a series that would leave the temperamental Scot with golf's equivalent of a faceful of soot and a rapidly-sinking self-belief. It would be followed by a triple at the short fifth and another double at the sixth, dropping him to seven over par for the day and ten over for the tournament.
At that stage, his aggregate score would have caused him to miss the cut for the sixth time in the seven major tournaments he has contested since finishing runner-up to Geoff Ogilvy in the US Open at Winged Foot two years ago.
But then, having trudged off the sixth green,
a man who had seemed incapable of sending the ball in the desired direction suddenly rediscovered the accuracy and control that have been central to his outstanding achievements in a distinguished career.
From the tee at the 178-yard, par-3 seventh, the ball sailed straight to its target, coming to a halt nine inches from the hole. That would be followed by another birdie at the eighth, courtesy of a 20-foot putt. The momentum gathering from these two demonstrations of virtuosity seemed certain to be maintained at the ninth, where his approach left him a birdie putt of around five feet. But he pushed the ball marginally wide.
The sudden halt to his productive run may have been harmless in terms of his score, but the wince as he tapped in and retrieved his ball, followed by the dejected shuffle towards the next tee, suggested a return of the inner rage that so often sets him on a wayward course.
A string of seven successive pars could hardly be called a loss of direction, but they contained too much scrambling for comfort, especially as Montgomerie, through the back nine, remained vulnerable, on what was then the projected cut mark of eight-over par.
There was a number of opportunities to pick up shots, but, remaining faithful to the frustrating tendency not to hole out at meaningful times that has blighted his form in the last couple of years, Montgomerie watched in exasperation as several either shaved the hole or drew up an inch or two short.
In such circumstances, amid constant disappointment, the need always to be escaping from potential trouble is almost impossible to maintain to the end of the line. Montgomerie's penalty arrived at the par-four 16th, made virtually certain by a hooked drive that had him fighting for control from the moment he left the tee.
A few minutes later, he had recovered sufficiently to have left himself with a four-foot putt to save par and, this time, the ball passed the hole on the left. Having reached the dreaded nine-under aggregate, he then required either to find another birdie in the last two holes or rely on enough of the others to slip, thereby raising the cut mark.
To his credit, he took the better option, picking up a shot at the par-5 17th and making a textbook four at the last with a perfect drive, a chip to 25 feet and two putts. It was the perfect end to a day that, at one stage, promised to leave him psychologically scarred for life.
The full article contains 872 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
