Rain again at Loch Lomond

Further rain greeted the early starters on the second day of the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond this morning.

Four hours play was lost yesterday after torrential rain on Thursday morning, leaving 45 players to complete their first round on Friday.

Those players returned to the course at 7.30am, with the second round commencing just 15 minutes later as tournament officials attempted to make up for lost time.

Open champion Ernie Els’ two-shot lead over England’s David Howell remained intact, Australian Brett Rumford completing a first round 67 this morning by finishing birdie-bogey-par on the last three holes.

Els, who warmed up for the defence of his Open title at Sandwich next week with a flawless seven-under-par 64, was among the later starters – but Colin Montgomerie and Phil Mickelson were already back in action.

The duo were among the last to finish on Thursday evening, completing their rounds at 9:30pm just before play was suspended.

Montgomerie missed an eight-foot putt for birdie on the 18th and, after singing Loch Lomond’s praises earlier in the week, complained about the state of the greens

“That putt on the last summed up the whole day. I played fantastic, but putted like an idiot,” said the 40-year-old former European number one after his 71.

“The greens were very poor this afternoon, I don’t know why that should be, and the wind picked up. We got the wrong half of the draw.”

Mickelson fared even worse with consecutive double bogeys on the second and third, both times finding water, to be out in 41. And although he came back in 35, the left-hander faces an uphill battle to survive the halfway cut.

His task was made even harder when he bogeyed the 11th, his second hole of the day, to fall back to six over par, while Montgomerie carded two pars to remain level par.