Monty still dares to dream

The fans stood in the stands and cheered and whistled as Colin Montgomerie swept up the 18th fairway in the light drizzle of Royal Lytham & St Annes.

A soaring drive, a wonderful pitch to five feet, a putt which brushed the hole and a tap-in for a 70 left him leading by a shot after two rounds in the British Open.

Montgomerie - the man once dubbed ‘Mrs Doubtfire’, castigated by American galleries, criticised for his weight and branded Mr Grumpy - was half-way to paradise.

Much maligned and sometimes misunderstood, Montgomerie would have been inhuman if just for a moment as he drank in that applause he had not fast-forwarded 48 hours and hoped and dreamed of wrapping his arms around the Old Claret Jug - at the same time silencing once and for all the taunts of being the ‘‘best golfer never to have won a major’’.

What a wonderfully heart-warming story that would have been.

Yet here we are almost 12 months later with the knowledge that Montgomerie, noted for his front-running prowess in Europe after seven Order of Merit titles, blew that chance just as he has squandered so many others when the heat has been at its fiercest.

Still, the millstone of that unwanted tag hangs even heavier around his neck - and time is ticking away fast as he approaches his forties.

Could Muirfield provide the inspiration to finally carry this most complex of sporting characters across the finishing line?

If he plays, that is. Montgomerie has admitted his participation is in ‘‘grave doubt’’ after suffering more back pains from an ongoing injury at the Murphy’s Irish Open.

The odds are stacked against Montgomerie - but then again you wouldn’t rule him out after the last few months in which he has done just about everything.

He has parted with his long-time caddie and best friend Alastair Mclean, had familiar bust-ups with tannoy men and course officials. He has given Tiger Woods one of the games of his life in an epic play-off duel in the Deutsche Bank Open and yet missed the cut dismally in the US Open.

He has done it all while nursing that back injury, which has seen him cancel engagements because they would mean him sitting down for more than an hour.

Nothing is ever dull in the life of Montgomerie. But there is hope, and much of it is centred around that play-off thriller with Woods back in May.

Whenever Woods was in the field it seemed Montgomerie had shied away from the fight like a tortoise recoiling into its shell. It is no way to win a Major, especially when Woods has taken the first two of the calendar year and nurtures an ambition to become the first man to win all four in the same year.

In the Deutsche Open, however, Montgomerie proved that no longer is he intimidated by the power and excellence of the man who is on the way to becoming the greatest player to have lived.

True, Woods triumphed at the third extra hole of a sudden-death play-off that day when the Scot’s resistance faded, his shot from a fairway bunker ending in a water hazard.

But - while Woods picked up the winner’s cheque - Montgomerie took great heart from having pushed Woods all the way on a day when he himself had almost pulled out on the practice range, so painful was his back condition.

The fact remains, however, that for all his success in Europe Montgomerie has never won when Woods has been in the field. Apart from his first two rounds at Lytham last year, he has not been competing as tenaciously as he once did in the Majors.

He has had one near miss in the USPGA Championship - finishing on the wrong side of a play-off with Steve Elkington in 1995 - and as many as three close shaves in the US Open.

Third in 1992, he finished joint second in 1994 when he and Loren Roberts lost in a play-off to Ernie Els. Five years ago he finished a shot behind Els, saying: ‘‘This major business is getting me down.’’

There is no doubt the persistent vilification he has endured, and his inability to defuse or ignore volatile situations, has been a contributing factor.

One paper in the United States once ran the headline ‘Monty - America’s Number One Golfing Villain’. Spectators have openly taunted him with shouts of ‘Go home’, and he has reacted with sour glares and jabbing putters.

Sometimes they have had just cause - especially considering the Monty temperament can be so adversely affected by a runaway crisp paper, a little boy’s shuffling feet or the click of a camera.

Each bust-up inevitably brings the same old question. Will he ever land that elusive Major?

‘‘Am I too good a player not to have won a major?’’ asks the 39-year-old.

‘I have got quite close. On a couple of occasions I don’t feel it was my fault.

‘‘You can get fortunate or you can’t get fortunate.

‘‘It is just one of those things. Plenty of time left. I don’t feel I’m running out of time. I am a better golfer now than I was and, I hope, much more experienced.’’

The pressure, he believes, has also been eased by the cooling of anticipation.

‘‘The public’s expectations must be a little lower than normal,’’ he said.

‘‘It is quite good for me; it takes pressure off. My own expectations have always been the same. I would not come to The Open if I did not think I could win. That will be the time that I stop.

‘‘I am a British golfer. If I had a choice of winning a major The Open would be the number one.

‘‘When I was winning the money list here in Europe it was taking over wanting to win a major.

‘‘I was wanting to compete and do well in every tournament whether it was a major or not. It was possibly getting in the way, but not now.

‘‘Right now I feel I can win. I feel like I have six or seven years left of this level of golf.’’

One thing he will not be doing this year, however, is watching any videos of past British Opens to help his swing as he did once when studying his 1997 US Open video.

‘‘No, I don’t keep any videos of British Opens,’’ he said.

‘‘I am not that sadistic.’’

He has not lost his sense of humour. He just needs to discover how to win a Major.