Masterful round has Scot back in order

The British Masters had barely begun yesterday before a goodly number of the field would have conceded that it was all over.

Colin Montgomerie set out for his first round shortly after breakfast and by lunchtime he was eight under par with a lead he did not relinquish.

He was round in 64 and while there are still 54 holes to be played, the man who has been European number one for the past seven years had made a statement of very definite intent.

Despite the fluctuating nature of golf it would be a surprise if Montgomerie did not now build on the one-stroke lead he has over Mark McNulty and the three by which he leads Mathias Gronberg, Gary Orr and Raymond Russell.

Woburn is a course that suits him on the evidence of his third and second places in his last two events here. "It favours me," said this straightest of drivers, "because I can keep out of the trees."

Not only does Montgomerie tend to find the fairway, he is usually quite a long way down it as well. Yesterday his two measured drives averaged 298.5 yards and the remainder of his statistics supported his assertion that his score was the highest he could have taken.

He hit 16 greens out of 18, having hit 11 of 14 fairways, and then had 27 putts - figures which denote a remarkably high all-round standard.

"Everything is back in order," said Montgomerie, who departed the Open profoundly dissatisfied with his putting. "I left the odd one short," he added, "but there were a few good ones as well." What he meant was that there were five putts of the eight-to-12 foot variety which are so essential if a good score is to be compiled.

He left the course early, but not to put his feet up. He has a practice putting green in his garden, built to tournament standard and of a pace consistent with Woburn's greens. Asked if he had a tape of crowd noises to make it more realistic, he said: "I think I'd need at least two: one of a Scottish crowd and another of an American."

That was a reference to the sometimes appalling treatment he gets from spectators in the United States which led him to say in an American magazine recently that he felt it would hinder him in his efforts to win a major championship.

"The crowd's volume tends to increase the better I do," he said. "I'd like to say that it wouldn't happen if I was leading with a couple of holes to go in the PGA Championship next week - but I would have low expectations."