Lyle finds hope in beautiful bog

SCOTTISH OPEN: Sandy Lyle, after almost 10 years of "mental torture", believes that he is back. Yesterday he added a 68 to his opening round of 67 in the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond for a seven-under-par total, 135, that leaves him in his best tournament position since he won the Volvo Masters in 1992. David Davies reports from at Loch Lomond

He is four shots behind the surprise leader, the Swede Fredrik Jacobsen, but one ahead of Justin Rose, Carl Pettersson, Miles Tunnicliff and Richard Johnson, all on 136.

Michael Hoey's 72 yesterday left him best of the Irish at two under par; Paul McGinley's 73 left him on level par after the second round, and Darren Clarke lay one shot further back on one over, just inside the cut, after the same score.

For Lyle, the physical evidence of rejuvenation is skimpy. He has played well this week but before that had missed the cut in four of his eight events in Europe this season. But there have also been three top-20s in his last four events and mentally Lyle is convinced that an important corner has been turned.

"I know I'm on the right track," he said yesterday. "I'm looking for victories now. The bad days are buried deep in the ground."

As triumphs go, Colin Montgomerie's 12-foot birdie putt on the 18th yesterday was a dubious one. It meant that he qualified for the final 36 holes of the tournament, so spending a further two days in conditions about as alien as they could be to those existing at the venue for next week's British Open at Muirfield.

Before the event started American Brad Faxon called Loch Lomond "a bog", albeit one of the loveliest in the world. It is ankle-achingly wet as the players attempt to lift their feet out of the sodden, clinging grass and before the end of the week thousands of balls will have been absorbed by a practice range so soft that the ball-collecting tractor cannot be used.

It is no place to practise the low, piercing drives that could well be needed if the wind blows next week: anything along those lines this week would burrow under the turf like a jet-propelled mole.

Montgomerie tried to put a positive spin on things when it was over. "That putt," he said, "saved the weekend, so at least I can play two rounds and use them as a practice session." But that was as close as he got to being cheerful. He had duck-hooked his opening drive and so bogeyed the first and was asked if it was a shot out of the blue. "No," he sighed, "it's been a problem for months, months." He went on: "I'm not playing the golf I used to play, that's for sure." Was there no light at the end of the tunnel then? "I don't see any," he said sadly. "Not right now."

Ernie Els also birdied the last hole to ensure he made the cut. A seven at the par-five sixth came about after three putts from 10 feet, which is careless by anyone's standards, let alone a man who has twice won the US Open.

Guardian Service