Montgomerie on overtime

Colin Montgomerie has decided to work overtime this season to try to become European number one for the eighth time. The 36-year-old Scot has added the Spanish Open, starting today and next week's French Open to his schedule with a twin objective.

In the short term he wants to get some confidence back with his putting and in the longer term to ensure he qualifies for one of the three remaining World Championship events later in the season.

Conscious he needs some telling results from all the World Championship tournaments, which now count for European ranking points, Montgomerie asked to play in the Spanish and French events to try to make up ground on order of merit leader Darren Clarke.

Clarke's Andersen Consulting Matchplay World Championship win in February has put him more than £500,000 ahead of Montgomerie, who languishes in 32nd spot on the money list.

Clarke will not be in the field at Catalunya as he is playing in Japan and Padraig Harrington has decided to extend his break from tournament play. The Spanish Open was Harrington's first victory on the European tour in his rookie year but he has decided he needs another week to work on his game with Bob Torrance before he returns in the Benson and Hedges at the Forrest of Arden on May 11th.

However, Paul McGinley will lead a five strong Irish challenge for the event. McGinley, chasing World Ranking points will be joined by Des Smyth, Eamon Darcy, Gary Murphy and Ronan Raffery.

Montgomerie may be the world number three but he needs to be ranked in Europe's top 12 to earn a place in the next World Championship event, the NEC Invitational in Akron, Ohio, in August.

Essentially, he needs to put right the putting errors that caused his defeat in his singles contest against Severiano Ballesteros in the Spaniard's inaugural Ballesteros Trophy 10 days ago.

"I'm not holing my fair share of putts and that's been my problem for the last year," said Montgomerie. "That's why I've added these two weeks, to try to get some confidence before the US PGA and the US Open.

"And at the moment I'm not in the NEC. It's no good being the world's number three. You have to be one of the top 12 Europeans on our rankings now to get your place and at the moment I've not qualified."

Carlos Franco of Paraguay and former US amateur champion Hank Kuehne fired seven-under-par rounds of 65 to share the lead after the first round of the Houston Open. Bray's Keith Nolan got off to a fine start with an opening 70 to lie in the top 50.