Steady start for Monty

Colin Montgomerie began the USPGA Championship with three pars at Baltusrol today.

Runner-up in the Open to Tiger Woods last month, Montgomerie had to pull out of last week’s Johnny Walker Championship at Gleneagles after hurting fingers on his right hand, restricting the amount of practice he had going into the final major of the season.

What he wanted to avoid was going in the heavy rough, but that was where his opening drive down the 10th hole finished.

From there, the Scot could not make the green but after an indifferent chip he saved par with a 15-footer.

While Montgomerie sank a 10-foot birdie putt on the 430-yard 14th to be one-under and one behind early leader Mike Weir, Woods opened his bid for a third major victory this season with a bogie five.

The world number one pulled his drive down the 460-yard 10th and was unable to recover, then narrowly missed a birdie putt on the next.

Things took a turn for the worse for Montgomerie when he bogeyed the 15th and then double bogeyed the short 16th to fall to two over.

First he was in the rough again, tried for the green but came up short in the bunker. Then he chipped over the green on the next and with his chip back stubbed the ground and moved it less than two feet.