Monty racks up ninth hole-in-one

Colin Montgomerie extended his record number of European Tour holes-in-one to nine in Munich this morning – but it still looked like being a whole year without a top 10 finish for the Ryder Cup captain.

Montgomerie, 46 last Tuesday, sank a 156-yard eight-iron on the eighth hole at Nord-Eichenried, but with five holes to play in his third round of the BMW International Open he was still outside the top 50 and eight strokes adrift of South African Retief Goosen.

The last time the eight-time European No 1 had a top 10 finish was June 29 last year when he was runner-up to Spanish qualifier Pablo Larrazabal in the French Open.

Montgomerie has not only fallen out of the world’s top 100 since then, but also outside the top 200.

Making a much bigger move through the field today was England’s Graeme Storm, who with five birdies in his first eight holes charged to joint fifth place on nine-under-par.

That was three behind double US Open champion Goosen, who held a one-shot overnight advantage over Dane Soren Kjeldsen, with Scot David Drysdale and England’s Nick Dougherty one further back.

Montgomerie’s playing partner Michael Hoey, the former British amateur champion from Belfast and winner of his first Tour title in Portugal in April, had eagles on both the sixth and 11th holes as he improved to six-under.