Monty’s game shows signs of previous high

COLIN MONTGOMERIE believes his game is returning to the level of the all-conquering days when he dominated the European Tour after carding a seven-under-par 65 in defence of his Caltex Masters title in Singapore.

Fri, 28 Jan, 2005 - 00:00

The 41-year-old Scot was in scintillating form at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club as seven birdies and no bogeys gave him a three-stroke lead over English duo Nick Dougherty and Mark Foster, and Malaysia’s Danny Chia.

A year ago Montgomerie dropped only one shot in four rounds on his way to a three-stroke victory on the same course but he believes he is in even better shape than 12 months ago. He even went as far as saying yesterday’s round reminded him of happier times when he won the European Order of Merit seven times in a row.

“I really feel this is a fantastic start to the new year. It is the way I used to play in the 1990s where I didn’t make mistakes. To start out a year where the pressure is on for me to get my world ranking back to where it should be, and I know it should be in the top 20, this is a fantastic start,” he said.

Apart from the win here last year, an encouraging performance in the Open at Troon and holing the winning putt in the Ryder Cup at Oakland Hills in September, Montgomerie endured a pretty miserable 2004 with a slump in form coinciding with a very public divorce from his wife Eimear.

However, he has adopted a more positive approach this year and on yesterday’s evidence it is paying off.

“You can’t win a tournament on the first day but you can lose it. I am looking forward to continuing,” added Montgomerie.

“I have (former caddie) Alastair McLean back on the bag and I am as happy on and off the course as I have ever been, so this is a great start to what hopefully will be a good year.”

Montgomerie, starting at the 10th, picked up three shots over the last four holes of his outward nine before coming home in 32 with birdies at the third, fifth, eighth and ninth, as putts dropped from a variety of distances ranging from four feet to 30.