Monty can see 1-2-3 for Europe in Open

COLIN MONTGOMERIE will be watching rather than playing this week — and believes he could witness something that has not happened in the British Open since 1938.

Having failed to qualify himself for the first time since 1989, Monty would not be in the least bit surprised to see a European 1-2-3 at Sandwich.

And no prizes for guessing that Rory McIlroy, Luke Donald and Lee Westwood are the players he can most easily picture leading the race for the Claret Jug.

As for the order in which they will finish, however, Montgomerie could not be pinned down.

“They are all good enough to win,” said the Scot who played with both Westwood and Donald in last week’s Barclays Scottish Open, where his bid to extend his own British Open run ended with a 31st-place finish.

He was with world number one Donald as he opened with back-to-back 67s at Castle Stuart and then, while he was going away to a four-shot victory with a 63 that was his lowest-ever round on the European Tour, he saw Westwood close with a 68 for joint 14th spot.

“Lee didn’t hole the putts that Luke did,” he said. “Luke is extremely good — there are no weaknesses in his game at all. Lee does not putt as well, but he hits the ball further and he is stronger.

“I feel if the weather is inclement then he would be favoured, but if the weather’s nice I think Luke could well be favoured.”

The forecast is for possible gusts of 30mph during Friday’s play, but easing off for the weekend.

“At the end of the day it comes down to putting,” added Montgomerie. “When (Tiger) Woods and (Phil) Mickelson won their majors it’s not because of power or whatever — it was because of short game and putting.

“I’m not saying Lee is weak at it, I’m just saying that Luke is extremely good at it.

“It’s going to be interesting, but when you look at Luke’s game, Lee’s game and of course Rory’s game I can easily see them finishing first, second and third.

“But that could be in any order — we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Meanwhile, Thomas Bjorn, the man who lost the 2003 British Open at Sandwich from three ahead with four to play, will tee it up this week after the injured Vijay Singh withdrew yesterday.