Majestic Monty back on winning trail

Colin Montgomerie today stormed to his first European Tour title in 16 months in the Caltex Masters in Singapore.

Damien McGrane finished tied for 17th on six-under par, with Peter Lawrie three shots further back.

Montgomerie overturned a four-shot overnight deficit with a stunning final round of 65 and 16-under-par total at Laguna National, claiming his 28th career victory with a three-stroke victory over American Greg Hanrahan.

The former European number one collected the first prize of €124,800 and will also qualify for the forthcoming Players Championship at Sawgrass by moving back into the top 50 in the world rankings.

The 40-year-old failed to win an event in Europe last year for the first time in more than a decade, his last tour title coming when he controversially shared the Volvo Masters with Bernhard Langer in November 2002.

He began the week bemoaning the ‘little mistakes’ which have crept into his game since his prime in the 1990s, and it looked like they would prove costly again when he bogeyed the final hole of his first round on Thursday to card a 71.

But he never dropped another shot all week and finished in style with his lowest final round since a 64 when winning at Loch Lomond in 1999.

Montgomerie felt he needed to birdie three of the first four holes today to put pressure on the leaders, but despite birdies at the first and second, he was still three behind Lane who had picked up a shot on the second.

But further birdies on the fifth and seventh cut the deficit to a single stroke, and when Lane bogeyed the ninth Montgomerie was tied for the lead for the first time.

The Scot then moved clear with another birdie on the 13th and with his challengers all failing away, a sixth birdie of the day on the par five 15th effectively sealed victory.

There was still time to deliver the coup de grace with a towering long iron to within two feet of the hole on the 202-yard par three 17th, setting up another birdie on the hardest hole of the course.