Slow start for Monty in Arizona

Colin Montgomerie made an inauspicious start in his second-round encounter at the Accenture Match Play Championship on Thursday.

Montgomerie, out in the third match on a crisp morning at Dove Mountain, lost the first hole against American Charles Howell.

Both players were short of the green in two shots at the par-five hole – and while Montgomerie struck his third shot to inside 10 feet, Howell ran his shot up to half that distance.

After Montgomerie missed his birdie chance, Howell duly knocked his in to draw first blood.

Montgomerie, who barely scraped into the 64-man field as the lowly 59th seed, beat sixth seed Jim Furyk in yesterday’s first round.

In the day’s first match, Australian Adam Scott and American Woody Austin were all square after three holes – while Spaniard Sergio Garcia and American Boo Weekley were also tied up after two holes.

Sixteen matches were scheduled on the second day, with 10 Europeans among the 32 players still alive after the first round.

The highlight on day one was top seed Tiger Woods’ stunning comeback against fellow American JB Holmes.

Woods was three down with five holes left but promptly won the next four holes, reeling off three birdies and an eagle as his putter ran white hot.

He halved the last to win one up, setting up a second-round match against another American Arron Oberholser.

Second seed Phil Mickelson also struggled to advance, before finally fending off the pesky Pat Perez by the same one-up margin.

Mickelson’s reward was a second-round match against Australian Stuart Appleby.