Murphy’s Irish Open: Monty takes his time

Picking up tips from Wimbledon as he goes, it is still ‘‘Advantage Colin Montgomerie’’ at the halfway point of the Murphy’s Irish Open in Cork.

On a blustery day which ruled out any repeat of his superb opening 63, Montgomerie stayed two in front at Fota Island by adding a 69 for a 10 under par total of 132.

Things did not look so good when he had two bogeys in his first eight holes, pulling a three-wood into water for the first and three-putting for the other.

But the Scot responded with four birdies and thought the key to his revival was that he refused to panic or change his routine something he thinks some of those at the all-England club need to remember.

‘‘Guys who haven’t been on the Centre Court before suddenly rush if they are in the lead or have to get things going,’’ he said.

‘‘Nine out of 10 people don’t take enough time under pressure.

‘‘It’s interesting to watch the likes of Sampras and Agassi perform and how long they take on big points. They don’t rush.’’

Having been overtaken by Thomas Bjorn at one point, Montgomerie was delighted at the end result.

‘‘In a lot of ways that was a better round than the first one because of the way I started,’’ he added.

‘‘My target was to get to double figures (under par) and I’ve done that.’’

Montgomerie will be at Wimbledon in person on Monday and he hopes it will be with the 30th victory of his career under his belt.

What would make it especially sweet is that the world number nine has not won on the European tour for 13 months and, worryingly for captain Sam Torrance, is only 13th in the Ryder Cup points race.

Victory would probably take him sixth.

Bjorn, currently fifth and already safely in the team it is assumed, bogeyed two of his last three holes and that lifted Londoner Anthony Wall into second place at eight under after a second successive 67.

The 26-year-old won in South Africa at the start of last season and is progressing steadily along this year with three top 10 finishes so far.

‘‘There are a lot of good young English players nowadays and we don’t get as much credit as we should,’’ he said.

‘‘We are going to show what we can do over the next few years.

‘‘There are probably seven or eight and at least half could be world-class.’’

The list could be made even longer. Attention lately has been on Ian Poulter, Justin Rose and Paul Casey, but Warren Bennett, David Howell, Brian Davis, Steve Webster, amateurs Luke Donald and Nick Dougherty and Wall himself have great potential.

Thankfully over the glandular fever which restricted him to just six events in his rookie season 1997, Wall is lapping up the atmosphere of the Irish Open and since his grandfather was from County Sligo he will be hoping for great support when he goes head-to-head with Montgomerie.