Donald hits top gear after the rains abate

GOLF/SCOTTISH OPEN:THE SCOTTISH Open can prove a curious tournament. Luke Donald claimed a blissfully straightforward victory, a cheque for the hardly insignificant figure of €550,000 and endorsed his position as the world's number one golfer. Yet this is an event which never seems to receive full focus from many, and understandably so. There are broader agendas.

The British Open Championship always looms large over it; players either travelled to Castle Stuart with Royal St George’s form in mind, or appeared in the Highlands looking to earn a last-minute invitation to Sandwich.

Donald, of course, savoured victory. “It doesn’t get better than going out and winning the week before (the Open),” he said. “I’m going to be high on confidence. When I play well, I tend to do the same the following week.”

Still, the chances of a player triumphing on back-to-back Sundays – not least when one of them marks the culmination of a major – mean those British Open competitors who enjoyed decent rather than spectacular touch in Scotland’s Highlands will be perfectly content. In Donald’s favour is that his standing renders it plausible that he can claim the claret jug.

Colin Montgomerie has no such opportunity; something which, by his admission, will have sunk in only on a two-and-a-half-hour drive home last night. The fact Montgomerie was behind the wheel within 10 minutes of stepping off the 18th green highlighted his disillusionment. His demeanour illustrated the exact same.

“Not good,” was Montgomerie’s curt assessment. “I’ll start again, that’s all I’ve got. I’ve got a week off next week, I have played three in a row. I have to get down to the Open anyway, I have something to present on Tuesday night at a dinner. Then I’ll just come home.”

Montgomerie has probably accepted that his quest to claim a major is all but over. Yet there would still be hurt that the Scot was unable to cement a 22nd appearance in succession.

Particularly because Montgomerie had threatened earlier yesterday to make his way into Thursday’s first round in the most spectacular of fashions.

He had been one of the players most seriously disrupted by the absence of play on Saturday. Having first reported to the course at 5.30am, he was still around after 7pm when the decision was made that not a competitive ball would be struck.

During the intervening hours, Montgomerie expressed frustration that the Castle Stuart event could not retain its 72-hole format. The motivation for that stance seemed simple, Montgomerie believing he had a better chance of obtaining the remaining Open place over four rounds than three.

Subsequent figures on his scorecard and those of others appear to show another day’s play would actually have lessened Montgomerie’s British Open bid. Still, his earlier sentiment remained. “It was always too soon, too short,” the 48-year-old said.

Yet things had started so promisingly. Montgomerie used the culmination of his second 18-hole round, early yesterday morning, and first six holes of his next to move to a share of the lead at 11 under par. It did not take long for things to collapse.

Montgomerie missed the green of the par-three 11th, prompting “an impossible, impossible lie, twice”. Whatever the mitigating factors, a double-bogey five ensued; there was time for Montgomerie to have a moan about people on a nearby boat making just a little too much noise.

Amid what became a fraught and complex chase for a British Open invitation, the Glaswegian Scott Jamieson prevailed. Jamieson holed out from 10ft at the last to tie another five players for third; more pertinent was that, out of that group, he held the highest world ranking among those who were not previously in the Royal St George’s draw.

Graeme McDowell’s hopes were doomed from the moment he racked up nine shots at the 12th hole. Eye-catching for more positive reasons was the 12-under aggregate from Pádraig Harrington. Lee Westwood’s identical score also leaves him perfectly placed for Kent.

At least one thing is absolutely certain; a far stiffer test awaits from Thursday.