Monty still seeking maiden major

Colin Montgomerie travels to next week’s USPGA championship convinced he can end his major championship drought at Whistling Straits.

Montgomerie inherited the unenviable tag of "best player not to have won a major" when Phil Mickelson won the Masters earlier this year in his 47th major.

The Scot has already reached his half century in majors and finished second three times, losing play-offs in the US Open in 1994 and USPGA in 1995 and finishing runner-up to Ernie Els again in the US Open in 1997.

The breakdown of his marriage earlier this year has contributed to a poor season by the former European number one’s standards, with one win and just two other top 10 finishes so far leaving him likely to need a wild card from captain Bernhard Langer to make a seventh Ryder Cup appearance in September.

But with the second of those top 10s coming in his last event in Sweden, Montgomerie heads to Wisconsin in confident mood for the final major of the year.

“I played particularly well in Sweden, it’s my best finish for a while to be in the top five and I’d like to continue that form for the next three weeks and actually qualify for the Ryder Cup and give him (Langer) a chance of selecting someone else,” the 41-year-old said.

“Of course I think I can win the USPGA, I wouldn’t be going all that way over there if I didn’t. I have to think that, as a potential Ryder Cup player there is no reason why I can’t.

“I know if I play the way I did in the last round in Sweden and battle the way I did in Troon (he finished 25th in the Open) there is no reason why I can’t with a little bit of fortune on my side.

“Ernie Els missed that putt to beat Todd Hamilton on the 72nd hole at Troon, against me he holed that (in the 1997 US Open).

“If he’d missed that against me I’d have won at least one of these things by now. It’s just a matter of fortune for me and against the other player and you have to be in that position enough for the door to open.

“Mickelson proved that at the Masters and I have to be up there in contention again and I’m looking forward to being that way.”

It is the first time Whistling Straits has been used for a major championship and it promises to pose a stern test.

Measuring a daunting ,514 yards, its four par fives are 593, 598, 618 and 569 yards long, with the par-three seventh stretching 221 yards and 17th two yards longer.

The 18th is a 500-yard par four and it is no wonder Nick Faldo said of the course: “I have heard that the course is a brute, probably the longest PGA we have ever played.”

That will not favour the likes of Faldo, now one of the shorter hitters on tour, although the 47-year-old has not given up his faint hopes of adding to his record 11 appearances in the Ryder Cup by producing something extra special at the USPGA.

“I might have to win the darn thing,” admitted Faldo, who last made the Ryder Cup team at Valderrama in 1997. “I need to go and have a great week at the PGA because that’s where you show your true colours.”

Faldo will partner New Zealand’s Michael Campbell and American Charles Howell in the opening two rounds, while Montgomerie is alongside Fred Funk and Shingo Katayama.

Darren Clarke is among the early starters on day one, followed shortly after by English pair David Howell and Paul Casey and Wales’ Phillip Price.

However, Denmark’s Thomas Bjorn has pulled out of the event with a recurrence of a shoulder injury.

Bjorn, who famously crumbled when leading the 2003 Open with three holes to play to allow Ben Curtis to win, has had the problem for several years.

The Dane, who a month ago walked out of the European Open after six holes ‘to fight off demons’, has slipped to 31st in the Ryder Cup European points list and a third cap at Oakland Hills next month appears highly unlikely for the man who helped Europe triumph at Valderrama in 1997 and The Belfry two years ago.

The plum draw sees world number one Tiger Woods playing with number three Vijay Singh and the big-hitting 1991 USPGA and 1995 Open champion John Daly.

In keeping with tradition, this year’s three major winners, Phil Mickelson, Retief Goosen and Todd Hamilton will all play together the first two days.

Ireland’s Padraig Harrington lines up alongside probable Ryder Cup opponent Jim Furyk and world number two Els.