Golf: Monty determined to battle on

Colin Montgomerie can understand any sportsman who wants to stay close to his family amid fears of more terrorist outrages.

But while this week’s Cisco World Match Play championship at Wentworth allows him to do just that - the Surrey course is only a few miles from his home Montgomerie will be on the road and in the air again soon.

‘‘Everybody has their own point of view on this, but the situation has not altered my plans,’’ said the 38-year-old Scot, who has the bonus of a day off today before entering the fray against either US Open champion Retief Goosen or Ian Woosnam.

Those plans take him to St Andrews next week, then Spain, America, South Africa and back to America before Christmas and then Australia in January.

This week’s £1m event has suffered a series of rejections, among them major winners David Duval, David Toms and John Daly, Australian Robert Allenby and, only on Tuesday, Canadian Mike Weir.

‘‘The game seems to have ground to a halt in a way since September 11,’’ added Montgomerie.

‘‘And we’re still having to take it day by day we don’t know whether this tournament will finish or if next week will go ahead.’’

Following the cancellation of the American Express world championship and then the postponement for a year of the Ryder Cup, Montgomerie played the following week in the Lancome Trophy, but missed the halfway cut saying his mind was not on golf.

‘‘Everything still seems less important it’s been a strange month,’’ he added.

‘‘But I still think there’s going to be some good games here this week.’’

One he expects to fall into that category is the one which a week ago was in nobody’s plans.

Seve Ballesteros, 230th on the European Order of Merit this year, was the Golden Oldie called upon when Daly could not agree terms - he wanted a private jet to fly him home afterwards and then European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance, 194th on the money list, stepped in for Weir.

‘‘They are two fantastic competitors. Seve is a legend in match play,’’ said Montgomerie.

In April last year he lost to Ballesteros two and one in the inaugural Seve Trophy Continent of Europe v Britain and Ireland - at Sunningdale.

‘‘It was amazing, incredible. On greens that were unputtable at the time he never missed from 10 feet,’’ said Monty.

‘‘If he can keep the ball on the hole he’s playing I think Sam will have a difficult task. Seve has that competitive edge on everybody else.’’

Today’s other first-round matches are Nick Faldo against Padraig Harrington and Thomas Bjorn against Adam Scott.

Darren Clarke plays Faldo or Harrington, defending champion Lee Westwood is next up for Bjorn or Scott, while Vijay Singh is the quarter-final opponent for the victor of Torrance and Ballesteros.