More misery for Montgomerie in Paris

Colin Montgomerie struggled to make any impact on the leaderboard in the second round of the 34th and final Lancome Trophy today.

Montgomerie began the day five shots off the lead after a last-hole bogey, where he found the water on the 18th, forced him to settle for a first-round 68.

And the Scot remained well adrift of overnight leader Retief Goosen as he approached the end of his second round at St Nom-la-Breteche.

Starting on the 10th, Montgomerie missed the fairway by just 10 feet and made it known in no uncertain, and definitely unprintable terms, what he thought of the terrible lie he found.

The 40-year-old managed to hack the ball onto the green and two-putted for par from long range however, despite the distraction of one spectator strolling down the hole carrying on a conversation on his mobile phone.

Montgomerie narrowly missed the 11th fairway as well and found a greenside bunker with his second, but enjoyed a stroke of good luck when his escape hit the flag and stopped four feet from the hole.

That secured another par and the former European number one made it three in a row when he missed from 15 feet for birdie on the par three 12th.

Monomerie is desperate to maintain his proud records of finishing inside the top 10 on the Order of Merit every year since 1991 and winning at least one tournament every year since 1993.

He left it as late as possible last year to win a tournament, and even then had to share first place in the final event of the season with Bernhard Langer when their Volvo Masters play-off was suspended because of darkness.

And time is running out this season with only seven events remaining after this week, with only five of those at most likely to feature Montgomerie.

He certainly had his work cut out to win here in Paris with a bogeys on the 15th and 18th leaving him one under par and suddenly in danger of missing the cut if he dropped any further shots.

A birdie on the third gave him some breathing space but at two under par with four holes to play he was still six shots off the lead.

Goosen, who was among the afternoon starters, had been joined by Spain’s Carlos Rodiles and Belgian Nicolas Colsaerts on eight under par at the top of the leaderboard.

Rodiles briefly led on his own at nine under following an outward nine of 31 before dropping a shot on the first, while Colsaerts had picked up two birdies and an eagle in his first seven holes.