Old club putts it right for Roe

Mark Roe is a lover of, and occasional dealer in, all things old and fascinating, a haunter of auctions, a seeker of baubles and trinkets. On the European Tour he acquired an inevitable nickname and formed a company based on it; Lovejoy Fine Arts and Antiques Ltd.

But although that side of his life is a passion he has never given up the day job. He is a pretty nifty operator in the world of professional golf, too, good enough to have won three times on the European Tour and, after 36 holes of the Lancome Trophy at St Nom La-Breteche, to have played his way into contention for the £150,000 sterling first prize in this £900,000 sterling tournament.

He leads by one from Sergio Garcia and Anthony Wall, who both had rounds of 65 yesterday, with Jean Hugo of South Africa and Steve Webster from Atherstone a further stroke back on eight-under, 133.

Irish interest in the event faded with the elimination of all four competitors. David Higgins (143), Des Smyth (146), Gary Murphy (147) all missed the cut, set at level par 142, while Eamonn Darcy withdrew.

Roe had a second successive 66 yesterday for 132, a welcome return to form for a man languishing in 131st place in the order of merit and in fear of losing his playing privileges. Appropriately, it was accomplished with a putter that definitely qualifies as a golfing antique, one that had lain at the back of his garage, unloved and unwanted, for six years.

It was in 1995 that Roe decided conventional short putters had had their day and consigned the one he was using to a kind of golfing sin bin. Roe had won the 1992 Lancome with this particular putter, though, and so, in his words: "It got lucky."

He added: "Normally, clubs that are out of favour don't make the garage. Normally, they end up in a tree or thrown into a pond. But this one was quite a good one so I saved it just in case."

It was as well that he did. Since 1995 he has been using the long putter which, mostly, worked well. But all this season he has been playing well and putting, in his words, "averagely". He added: "You can't putt averagely on this tour and survive, you have to putt at least well."

So he decided on a radical change, going back to his Ping JB5. And, just as antiques should, after being dusted off and polished, it sparkled. It was not so much the number of putts holed as the importance of those not missed. Every time a misadventure occurred a par was saved, and every birdie chance that came his way was converted.

There is nothing antique about Garcia, aged 21 and having fun. In the middle of yesterday's round he had eight birdies in 10 holes and, like Retief Goosen on day one who had seven successive birdies, felt he might go on forever. A bogey at the 14th put a stop to that, but he is well-placed to become the first European to win on both sides of the Atlantic since Lee Westwood in 1998.

Colin Montgomerie missed the cut and admitted his heart was not in golf this week. "I think you would have found," the Scot said, "that if the Ryder Cup was going to be played next week, my score would have been different." It was his third such failure this season, and his worst since 1998, when he missed five cuts.

Details in SPORTS ROUND-UP