Montgomerie clanger won't impress Langer

Colin Montgomerie, out to impress Ryder Cup captain Bernhard Langer, failed to do that on the 598-yard fifth hole at Whistling Straits as he ran up a quadruple-bogey nine.

Montgomerie is 21st in the cup standings with only two more weeks to go in the European race – the battle for places in the American side concludes tomorrow - and had survived the halfway cut in the USPGA championship with nothing to spare at one over.

Fancied for one of Langer’s two wild cards if necessary, the 40-year-old Scot still wants to play himself into the team and preserve his record of qualifying automatically every time.

He parred the first four holes of his third round, but then came the nine and when he bogeyed the next Montgomerie was last of the 73 players through to the weekend.

They also included Tiger Woods on level par after his birdies at two of the last three holes yesterday and the world number one kicked off with two more in the first three holes.

Having been three over par after 30 holes Woods was up to two under and had risen from 104th place after his opening 75 to joint 23rd.

Ian Poulter, meanwhile, started one of the most important weekends of his career by bringing attention back to his golf rather than his clothes.

Ninth in the race for places in the Ryder Cup team the 28-year-old from Milton Keynes, who just missed out on the side three years ago, had survived the cut thanks to a superb up and down from a greenside bunker.

And when he resumed on one over par – 10 adrift of leaders Vijay Singh and Justin Leonard – Poulter picked up birdies at the par five second and difficult short seventh and turned in 34.

Every stroke was vital because, barring a charge on the leaderboard, the man now known for what what he wears – Union Jack trousers at the Open last month were followed by Stars and Stripes on Thursday – will not be part of the field for next week’s NEC world championship in Akron.

Poulter has to climb into the world’s top 50 for that and he is currently 61st.

Seventh-placed Paul Casey missed the cut in Wisconsin with a dramatic closing triple bogey last night and another target for Poulter was a top-20 spot which would take him above his fellow Englishman in the table with two weeks to go.

Casey, though, has qualified for next week and there is at least 25,000 dollars there for finishing last.

Singh and Leonard led by a stroke from Darren Clarke – 36 today – Ernie Els and Briny Baird.