It was a particularly cautious but still a very pleased Colin Montgomerie who took the post-round press conference, following his opening round of six-under 65, to lead the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes today.
Montgomerie still carries the tag, ‘best golfer not to have won a major’ but judging by today’s dazzling and ultimately resilient display, it may not be long before he rids himself of the jinxed label.
The Scot is generally very upbeat after a good round, and something like a 65 has, in the past given rise to comments of winning a tournament, even at such early stages.
Today was different.Montgomerie showed a mark of self restraint in his responses, almost as if not to tempt fate.
"I needed to get a good start and that’s what I did today. I got the pace of the greens early on and I putted well and whenever I do that I have a chance," said Montgomerie.
That may sound very similar to the brash Monty we are used to you might say.But when prompted on several occasions to answer whether he will win from here, Monty gave a response which suggested experience told him to show restraint.
"I don’t want to talk about the weekend, instead I’m glad to be in sort of contention," said Montgomerie.
"All this is, is a good start nothing more than that."
Nevertheless, the 38-year-old was in blistering form to reach the turn in 30 shots.His five-under outward half consisted four birdies - at the first, second, eighth and ninth. He added an eagle at the par five sixth and just a solitary bogey at the previous hole.
From there Monty moved to six-under with another birdie at the 10th and continued to dominate the fairways with that characteristic march of his.
Matters threatened to disrupt his progress after a three putt for bogey on the 14th.However the Scot stayed resolute and finished the last four holes with single putts.Three of which were for par and a birdie at the last.
It is a monumental start by Monty considering the pitiful record he has in the Open.For one who dominated the European Order of Merit for seven years from 1993, Monty has missed the cut five times in his last nine attempts in the Open.
"Since 1997 I haven’t performed properly in a major so naturally I’m pleased with today’s round," said Montgomerie.
He was referring to the 1997 US PGA Championship where he lost for a second time in a play-off to Ernie Els.
Montgomerie was chased and threatened on occasions throughouttoday but in the end the closest anyone could get was three adrift on three-under.
One of those is American Brad Faxon who set the early clubhouse pace with a 68 in the morning.
"It’s nice to get off to a good start especially in the Open," said Faxon afterwards. He went on to say, "I love playing links golf over here and I just wish more of players from the States would make the effort."
Faxon is joined by fellow American Chris Di Marco and little known Mikko Ilonen from Finland each also shooting 68's.
Elsewhere it was a game of patience for the defending champion Tiger Woodswho had to settle for a level par 71.
"It was tough out there, I grinded my way round so I could keep myself in contention," said Woods.
"I didn’t hit the ball the way I wanted to.But at least I knew to miss it on theright side, that way I still gave myself a chance to get up and down."
Like all great players Woods emphasised: "The key for me was not to make any worse than bogey because in major championships it is difficult to recover from a double because the course is set up so difficult."
Many of the usual suspects are loitering and around level alongside Woods. Ernie Els, managed 71 despite a back injury threatening his withdrawal earlier in the week.Bernhard Langer, Micheal Campbell and Fred Couples also managed level par.
Closer still to Montgomerie were world class players like Phil Mickelson, Vijay Singh, Sergio Garcia and Darren Clarke, all on one-under par.
Of 33 players who broke par today the majority sit at two-under par, 16 in all.Some of the names include Paul McGinley, David Duval, Justin Rose, Jesper Parnevik, Jose Maria Olazabal and Pierre Fulke.The last two names were supposed to have no chance due to indifferent form coming to Lytham.How they have proved the doubters wrong thus far.
The 32,000 spectators who came to see their idols in action were not disappointed.And the begging question on the mind of most, is, can Montgomerie finally fulfil his dream of winning a major from such a dominant start?Only time will tell that one.