Unlucky 13th as injury forces Monty to quit
What Montgomerie called one of the worst shots he has ever hit left him with three bruised and swollen fingers.
Now the 42-year-old, runner-up in the Open last month, has only six days before the start of the US PGA championship. As England’s Mark Foster took the lead in the Johnnie Walker Championship with a four-under-par 68, Montgomerie headed to London to see a hand specialist.
“I couldn’t feel the club at all, but hopefully it’s just heavily bruised”, said the Scot, who had wanted to be flying to New Jersey as European number one for the first time in six years.
A top-two finish was needed for that, but Montgomerie had played only eight of the 72 holes when the incident happened. From the middle of the fairway on the long 18th - his ninth hole - his gripped slip as he went with a driver into the wind.
He took a big divot and the ball squirted out right into dense rough only about 80 yards away.
Montgomerie put it at 30 yards himself, but rather than being concerned how far it went he was feeling some tingling in his right hand - and that became much worse when he thrashed at the ball with his next shot.
“All three middle fingers are bruised and swollen,” he said. “I got some ice and took some painkillers, but there was no way I could grip it at all.”
He had fallen to five over par when he decided it was simply not worth the risk of aggravating the injury by continuing, especially with such a big week coming up.
The specialist he will see is the same who treated him two years ago when he pulled out of the Open at Sandwich after a fall. It left the tournament with no star names to attract fans over the weekend.
Montgomerie’s Ryder Cup team-mate David Howell, who had been due to partner him in the first two rounds, scratched yesterday after further discomfort with the abdominal muscle he tore at the US Open in June.
Second on the order of merit at the time, Howell has not played since and is also now doubtful for next week.
Australian Richard Green was left as the highest-ranked player - he is 50th in the world - but an opening 77 leaves him in danger of bowing out.
Paul Casey, Howell’s partner in the win over the Americans last September, showed a semblance of real form at long last. After six successive missed cuts, Casey, a winner on the course four years’ ago, returned a 71.
Foster, only 122nd on the order of merit and without a top-10 finish all year, made six birdies and two bogeys.
Foster was the only player all day to break 70, but no fewer than 12 finished on two under including: England’s Mark Roe, Jonathan Lomas and David Lynn; Ireland’s Damien McGrane; Welshman Bradley Dredge, and Scot Ross Drummond.
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