Montgomerie moves into contention

COLIN MONTGOMERIE carded his first sub-70 round of the year at the 16th attempt to move into contention for a first Italian Open title.

Montgomerie added a second round 67 to his opening 70 for a seven under par halfway total of 137 at Gardagolf, just three shots behind joint leaders Peter O’Malley and Swedish rookie Fredrik Widmark.

Ireland’s Damien McGrane, Gary Murphy and Philip Walton all made the cut. McGrane added a 68 to his opening 73, while Murphy and Walton are in a group on 142 after rounds of 73 and 69 respectively yesterday.

Montgomerie was forced to scramble for par on several occasions and conceded he would have to improve his unusually wayward driving to claim a 28th European Tour title tomorrow.

The Scot single putted the last five greens, starting with a 15 footer for birdie on the 14th and then holing from three feet for par on the 15th after carving his drive right into the trees and playing his second from a cart path into the greenside bunker.

An eagle putt from fully 60 feet on the next brightened things up considerably despite the rain now falling heavily, and after holing from 12 feet for birdie on the 17th, Montgomerie again had to save par on the last from a greenside bunker after hooking his tee shot into more tree trouble.

It still added up to his first round under 70 this year after an unprecedented, if unsuccessful, eight-week spell in the United States.

Surprise leader Widmark birdied two of the last three holes to card a 65 and set the clubhouse target at 10 under par, later matched by O’Malley after the Australian added a 70 to his course record-equalling 64 on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Swede, in his first season on the main tour, also fired two eagles in the space of three holes on the front nine, holing from 30 feet on the par five fifth and then holing his second shot from 50 yards on the par four seventh.

It was comfortably Widmark’s best ever round on the European Tour and he would have broken the course record of 64 if not for a double bogey on the second where his approach span back into the water surrounding the front of the green.

Defiant defending champion Ian Poulter also insisted a third Italian Open in four years was his for the taking, despite lying six shots off the lead. Poulter carded six birdies and no bogeys to climb into the top 30.

However, the Englishman could so easily have been much closer to the top of the leaderboard after seeing a hatful of birdie opportunities narrowly slip by, and believes there are plenty more to come over the weekend.