Monty faces tough ascent

Colin Montgomerie has a mountain to climb to drag himself back into contention for the European Masters.

Montgomerie could only manage a first-round 70, one under par, at Crans-sur-Sierre perched high in the Swiss Alps.

That was five shots off the lead shared by Sweden's Robert Karlsson and world number two Ernie Els, with no fewer than 37 players between Montgomerie and the leaders.

The 40-year-old Scot carded just three birdies, chipping-in for the second of those, and only picked up one shot on the four reachable par fives.

"They are all really par fours and I was only one under," complained the former European number one. "It's been a problem all year and it continues to be one.

"The quality of the putting surfaces is better than it has been but it's a tough course altogether."

Montgomerie is hoping to get off to a flying start in the battle for Ryder Cup qualification which starts this week, but that honour could go to defending champion Karlsson.

Karlsson led from start to finish last year and the omens for a repeat performance are good, the Swede matching his opening 65 from 12 months ago to share the lead.

Having missed out by one place four years ago and then being overlooked for a wild card in favour of Andrew Coltart, the 34-year-old - who celebrated his birthday on Wednesday - would love to claim the £185,000 (€267,000) first prize and take a big step towards securing his place at Oakland Hills next year.

"If I can manage to get close again sooner or later it's going to be my turn," said Karlsson, who knows victory would take him more than a quarter of the way to the amount with which Phillip Price secured the final qualifying place for The Belfry.

"But it's a different system this year so I don't think anyone really knows how it's going to work out."

That new system means instead of 10 players qualifying from a points table based on the Order of Merit and two wild cards making up the team, five players will qualify from a special Ryder Cup World Points List.

Players will accumulate world ranking points from each event they play in which will be added together, unlike the Official World Rankings which take an average of points earned per event.

Five more players will have the chance to qualify through money earnt in official European Tour events, one euro being converted into one point, and captain Bernhard Langer's two wild cards will complete the line-up.