Montgomerie still wants to be number one

Colin Montgomerie may not be the only golfer in his family any more. But he still aims to be the best one.

The seven-time European number one, 40 last week, returned to the Smurfit European Open two strokes off the lead today saying: “I’m very anxious to do very well here.

“I think I can win and I’m enjoying this – this is good.”

Montgomerie’s wife Eimear played her first competition round at the Wisley club in Surrey on Wednesday and the Ryder Cup star was clearly very proud of her efforts.

“She did well,” he said before up-grading that to “great”, adding: “She shot 108. That’s playing to a 36 handicap and she’s been playing a month. She’s delighted.”

Montgomerie is seeking his first victory of a season which began with the worst slump of his career.

Trying his luck in America first, he made only one halfway cut in six attempts through to the Masters in April and also suffered an opening day defeat to German Alex Cejka in the Accenture World Match Play.

Returning to Europe instantly brought him a runners-up finish in the Italian Open, but last month he had two more missed cuts and the alarm bells were ringing again.

Joint overnight leaders were Montgomerie’s Ryder Cup team-mate Phillip Price, his fellow Scot Alastair Forsyth and also South African Retief Goosen, winner of the Order of Merit for the past two seasons.

Forsyth and Goosen have already had runners-up finishes this season, but Price has yet to record a top five placing – and that has clearly been getting him down.

“I need to get stuck in and stop feeling sorry for myself,” said the Welshman. “This year’s been a series of what-could-have-beens. I have played tidy, but not great and if you want to finish things off that’s not good enough.

“I keep thinking it’s really going to click, but I have not had the success to boost me. My confidence has deteriorated drastically. It takes some repairing and I have been a bit flat for the last month.”

Price is still remembered for his win over then world number two Phil Mickelson at the Ryder Cup last September, but he so wants to move on from that he says he is “sick” of the video of the match.

“Overall the fame is nice, but it has its down sides,” he added.

“I really need a bit of success to push me forward. Alan Fine, my sports psychologist, is here this week and we have been talking about why I don’t seem to be motivated and get irritated.”

What was on Darren Clarke’s mind yesterday afternoon was the health of Tracey Leaney, wife of US Open runner-up Stephen.

The Ulsterman’s drive at the 11th came off a tree, hit her on the head and sent her down. It was not until two hours later that she was released to go back to her hotel by medical staff.

“She’s six months pregnant as well, so it wasn’t a nice moment,” said Clarke.

“It’s always horrible hitting anybody and when we were walking up there to see her lying on the ground it is terrible.

“You don’t know how badly injured she is, but thankfully it was that bad a shot that it managed to hit a tree before it hit her head.

“It’s horrible for everybody. I shouldn’t have hit the ball over there, but unfortunately people do get hit every now and then.

“The last woman I hit on the golf course was Barbara Nicklaus (Jack’s wife) in the Open

championship at Royal St George’s in 1993. My record is not very good. But she was okay as well.”

Clarke still managed four birdies after the incident to tuck in just behind the three leaders, but pre-tournament favourite Padraig Harrington had seven strokes to make up after his 73.