Mission accomplished for Monty

COLIN MONTGOMERIE set himself a goal when he first saw the draw for the Scottish Open: “finish ahead of partners Ernie Els and Lee Westwood going into the week-end, and I have a good chance.”

Well, the anguished Scot has achieved that objective having completed 36 holes at Loch Lomond in five under par, one better than both Els and Westwood, and aims to develop on that over the week-end as he bids for his first tournament win since 2002 and his second Scottish Open.

The leader of the €3.3m event is the Frenchman Gregory Havret who is nine under after a 64 and one ahead of Englishmen Ian Poulter and David Howell and Phillip Price of Wales.

Montgomerie has been battling bravely to put his many personal problems aside as he tries to resurrect his ailing career. In spite of his many regrettable outbursts of petulance and rudeness, most would like to see him achieve that goal and where better than on the bonny banks and in the week preceding the Open Championship to be played over his “home” club at Royal Troon. Yesterday’s 68 had six birdies and he didn’t allow himself to be deterred by two bogeys, one of them at the opening hole.

“I’ll tell you what, the way Lee and Ernie are playing, if I can stay ahead of them for 72 holes, I’ll probably win”, said Montgomerie. “They are both playing very well. Ernie speaks for himself, but Lee is full of confidence right now after his good position in Ireland and he also seems safe for the Ryder Cup. Ernie, God, he’s so relaxed, it’s a joke, so to stay ahead of them for the next two days is the aim.”

The Big Easy may be laid back but didn’t appear too enamoured of the tone of Monty’s remarks: “That was his goal? Really? Well, he beat me for two days, but we’ve got two more to go. I always enjoy playing with Colin and he’s had some hard times recently. But he looks like he is enjoying himself and playing well. I am not too worried about him, I have to try and win the tournament on Sunday.”

The good thing about Els’s comment is that he genuinely wants to win this tournament and retain the title. Could you say the same for Phil Mickelson? Hardly. The gifted left-hander was so diffident about the whole thing, scorning a practice round and apparently happy to see his involvement terminated, that you wondered why he bothered to turn up at all. Asked to explain why he was unable to join the plethora of low scores, he simply shrugged his shoulders and drawled: “I don’t know. No real reason.” Could it have been, you wondered, that he wanted to get to Troon as quickly as possible to concentrate on his preparation for next week’s Open? He admitted that he spent the previous nights studying the notes he made on the Troon links during his practice round there on Wednesday and went so far as to confess that “I haven’t been worrying about here too much which may have contributed to some poor play today.”

The only time he became anyway animated was when he spoke in glowing terms about the “accommodations”. He’s been staying in the plush five star Cameron House alongside the golf course which he described as “very nice, great hotel and the food is wonderful, so it’s been a fun event.” Earlier in the week, Els suggested this tournament would benefit from playing it on a links in alternate years but Mickelson barely deigned to reply to respond to a very obvious question: “it wouldn’t matter to me either way.”

There also appears to be serious doubt as to whether he will compete in the American Express World Championship at Mount Juliet on September 30-October 3. He insists he hasn’t looked beyond the Ryder Cup a fortnight earlier and elaborated: “If I feel I’m playing well, then I will go and play a bunch starting with Ireland. But if not, I may just call it a year. I have gone at it pretty hard this year, even in my off weeks, because I’ve been preparing for other events, so I’m not sure what my energy level or excitement level will be after the Ryder Cup. I will decide after the Ryder Cup. My ambition is to play the last two majors of the year the best I can.”

Gregory Havret, of course, holds an entirely different place in the golfing landscape and victory tomorrow night would mean a life changing experience. He shot 64 yesterday in spite of three putting the long 5th to settle for a par and also missed a short one at the 11th. He joked: “Playing with Tom Weiskopf, the course designer, was a help. He didn’t tell me to avoid to watch out for the tree I planted over there but he did help to put me at ease. These are good times for French golf. Jeff Remesy won the French Open, Philippe Liam won the week before at St Omer, Christian Cevaer won the Spanish Open and Raphael Jacquelin and Thomas Levet are playing great.”

And so back to Monty ... his confidence is high for a welcome change.

His caddy was pleased to see him upset by missing a yard putt on the last on Thursday night. It showed that he was positive again and now he insists: “I know I have to score better over the next two days to win but I know it is possible, especially with the way the crowd’s support has been. It has been terrific for a number of reasons.”