Monty hopes for change in fortune

Between them they have 10 victories at Wentworth but Colin Montgomerie hopes it will be third time lucky when he plays Ernie Els in the opening round of the HSBC World Match Play Championship tomorrow.

Not only has eight-time European number one Montgomerie lost on both their previous clashes in the event, but he has not even held the lead at any stage.

Their first meeting was in the 1994 final, which came five months after they had finished first and second in the US Open.

Els, one of golf’s youngest major champions for years, celebrated his 25th birthday a day early by winning three holes in a row for a four and two victory.

The South African, making his debut then, went on to a hat-trick of titles – it was not until the 1997 final against Vijay Singh that he lost a match – but in the following few years it was Montgomerie who had the better record.

Winner in 1999, he also reached the 2000 final before losing to Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood at the second extra hole.

Montgomerie would love to say his second meeting with Els in 2002 was just as close – by then he had captured three Volvo PGA championships on the course - but it was not.

Although he had a morning 65 Montgomerie saw his opponent go round the West Course in a tournament record 60.

That unbelievable 12-under-par performance – two eagles and eight birdies - gave Els a four-hole lunchtime advantage and he went through to the semi-finals with a six and five scoreline.

Nobody could stop him that year, nor in the following two, giving him a record six titles.

No wonder Montgomerie would have preferred to meet somebody else at the start of this year’s event, especially on a course Els has redesigned.

What is in the Scot’s favour, however, is that he is the one with a victory to his name in 2007. He won the European Open in July, while world number five Els has had 12 top 10s, including fourth at the Open and third in the USPGA, but no firsts.

A £1million first prize is again on offer under the final year of HSBC’s sponsorship and although Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Sergio Garcia, Masters champion Zach Johnson, David Toms and Scott Verplank all turned down invitations there are still seven of the world’s top 20 in the 16-man line-up.

Paul Casey, no longer one of them after a disappointing recent run – nothing better than a 10th place finish since March – is the defending champion.

That gives the Surrey player the number one seeding and he plays lowest-ranked Jerry Kelly, with the winner then meeting either current US Open champion Angel Cabrera or two-time US Open champion Retief Goosen in the quarter-finals.

In the same half Justin Rose, needing a last-four spot to make the world’s top 10 for the first time, faces Kelly’s fellow American Hunter Mahan and South African Rory Sabbatini takes on Dane Soren Hansen.

In the bottom half the winner of the Els v Montgomerie duel will face either Swede Niclas Fasth or Argentina’s Andres Romero and Open champion Padraig Harrington will tackle either Henrik Stenson or Woody Austin if he can first get past Anders Hansen, winner of the BMW PGA Championship on the same lay-out in May.

Harrington defends a £22,000 lead over Rose at the top of the Order of Merit but such is the prize fund – even when it is scaled down for money list purposes - that Els, Fasth and Stenson could all be number one as well come Sunday evening.