Montgomerie bids to return to form

Colin Montgomerie is desperate to defend his Volvo Scandinavian Masters title after going back on his decision to miss the £1.3m (€2.1m) event in Stockholm.

Montgomerie shot a course-record 64 in the second round of the Open at Muirfield, but then crashed to an horrendous 84 on Saturday, and, after closing with a 75, said: “I’ve pulled out of tournaments for the next two weeks. I can’t handle it any more.”

The Scot was never scheduled to play in last week’s TNT Open in Holland but would have missed the trip to Sweden before changing his mind last week.

And now the 39-year-old is keen to win a fourth Scandinavian Masters title, the only one he currently holds, and continue a proud record of playing all four rounds in all 11 editions of the event.

Montgomerie took a week’s holiday on a boat off the coast of Naples with his family last week and said: “I needed the holiday to recharge the batteries, they were pretty low. I thought about taking three weeks off but I felt if I was going to do well in the USPGA I have to play golf.

“I’ve never taken three weeks off and then gone into a major and did not want to do that so I thought I would play here and try to defend. There is no better way to go into two large tournaments in America off the back of a win so that’s what I’m trying to do.

“The two tournaments in Ireland, one of which I was defending, and then Loch Lomond and the Open, there is not a worse month for pressure and expectation and everything that goes with it.

“Of those 16 rounds of golf, the two worst were the 15th and 16th and there is no secret why that was, I was very tired, mentally and physically. I needed a holiday and that was planned months in advance and that was a good time to have one.

“I enjoy getting away from mobile phones and fax machines and business and you actually do relax. You do switch off quicker than you would normally.”

However a week of relaxation and indulgence will not have done his attempts to lose weight to aid his ailing back any good, a few of the 35lbs he has been told to lose creeping back on.

But Montgomerie knows he will have to follow doctors orders if he wants to keep playing at the top level and possibly avoid an operation.

“I’m not that healthy right now, every week is a bonus if I do play. It’s a day by day thing and I have to see about it at the end of the year,” he added.

“Hopefully it won’t be an operation because that takes too much time. I’m just playing as well as I can, it’s just very painful. I can’t play too many holes of golf, I have to be careful. I don’t play or practice as much, I just have to build up and peak for a tournament.

“I haven’t lost half of what I was told to. I was told to lose 35lbs and I’ve only lost 15lbs. Losing that 20lb is possibly the difference between having an operation or not. It can only help and I’m giving myself every chance not to.

“They’re not saying I can’t continue to play, I am. I just can’t play.

“Unless they find something else that I can work towards, and I’d go for that option number one please, I may need an operation to keep playing. I have to work out and change my lifestyle, take it as a job.

“Unfortunately it’s very difficult on tour. We eat at different times so it’s very difficult to have a routine which you need to keep to. And boredom sets in, if I’m bored I tend to eat.”

Montgomerie has won at least two tournaments every year since 1993, but is well aware it is 12 months since he scraped to a one-shot victory over Lee Westwood and Ian Poulter in Malmo despite dropping shots at the last two holes.

“I want to try and win again. It’s been a year, since this tournament last year, and to get round a whole year without winning would be disappointing for me,” he added. “I want to win here really quite badly.

“Last year I’d just come off a good Open at Lytham, and to win two weeks later was good, and I don’t know what happened from then on.

“Physically I haven’t been right and I think that’s the key. May and June this year were good when I finished second twice, and even Friday at the Open was a very good round of golf, so I just need another three and I’ll be okay.

“If I haven’t won in this season I wouldn’t say it was unsuccessful, you have to be quite fortunate to win. I’ve always said there has never been a player that stands up in his press conference afterwards and says they were unlucky having won.

“There is always somewhere, whether it be Thursday or Saturday, that a good piece of fortune comes your way to keep the score ticking along and that’s important. The tournaments I’ve won I’ve been fortunate.”