Montgomerie finds his touch as Clarke slips up

COLIN MONTGOMERIE rose at 5.0 am and rediscovered his putting touch with a vengeance yesterday, on rain-soaked greens at Buckinghamshire GC. It brought him a total of 13 birdies and an eagle on his way to victory in the European section of the $3.65 million Andersen Consulting World Championship.

In a one-sided final, the Scot cruised to a 5 and 4 win over Costantino Rocca, who had earlier defeated Darren Clarke at the 19th in the morning semi-finals. So, when liberal amounts of cash were distributed, Montgomerie collected $200,000 and a place in the international finals in Arizona next January, while Rocca had the consolation of $150,000. Clarke and Sam Torrance had picked up $ 70,000.

It's not easy to get the brain and hands working in unison when there's a difference of $80 000 riding on the one stroke. But Clarke was crushed by his failure to press home a decisive advantage against Rocca.

"I got off to a great start which meant I was in control for most of the match," Clarke said. "The problem was that I failed to keep the pressure on him and I made a few mistakes later on."

The first of these came at the short 14th where excessive zeal with a 35-foot putt caused him to send the ball four feet past the target. His return effort had a tricky, left-to-right break and Clarke missed it on the left to lose the hole to a par.

Now, for the first time since they stood on the opening tee, the match was level. It represented quite a turnaround for the Ulsterman who birdied the first, second and fourth holes to be three up at that stage.

Then came a poor second into a bush at the long fifth which he lost to a birdie. And Rocca got another one back at the next where his 15-footer found the target whereas Clarke failed from 10 feet. And that's the way it stayed for the next seven holes, until the fateful 14th.

A significant feature of their battle, however, was the absence of Monday's crispness in Clarke's iron play. It meant that despite the advantage of playing two or sometimes three clubs less than his opponent for approach shots, he rarely converted this into a clear advantage. For his part, Rocca's putting lacked conviction in that he was frequently short of the target.

For Clarke, it came down to a five-foot birdie putt on the 18th, after Rocca had missed from a foot further back. Faced with a left to right break, just like the one on the 14th, Clarke failed to hit it firmly enough and the ball moved across the line, hit the right lip and stayed out.

That was the first blow - and there were two more to follow in sudden-death. For the sake of convenience in miserable conditions, the players went back down the 18th. First to hit, Rocca pulled a three-wood second shot dangerously off line and apparently into the water to the left of the green.

Clarke certainly thought so as he hit a splendid approach from rough on the right to within a yard of the front fringe. It later transpired, however, that Rocca's ball had stopped on the rain-sodden bank, about six feet above the water's edge. From there, he pitched to 12 feet.

Still, Clarke remained in command. The challenge was to play a straight-forward pitch-and-run shot to within a few feet of the target - but he made poor contact. Instead of checking, the ball ran on, 15 feet past the hole from where he failed to sink the birdie putt. Then, almost inevitably, Rocca slotted his effort for victory.

"I thought my second shot at the 18th was in the water," admitted the 40-year-old Italian afterwards. "So I was very happy when I saw and ball. I smiled a lot at that." Said Clarke: "It was my own fault. I had the chances. I'm bitterly disappointed."

Montgomerie took delivery of three putters from Callaway on Monday night, practised with them on the carpet of his Surrey home and then selected one for battle. "I came here at 6.0 and putted until 7.45 when I went in far breakfast," he said. "I've never worked as hard on any aspect of my game and it's nice to get rewards."

Indeed the rewards came early. After Rocca had won the first, Montgomerie went on to reach the turn in 30, by which stage he was four up. "Yes, it was a hot day," he added. "I feel very confident right now for the rest of the year." And well he might, having been 14-under-par for 28 holes, morning and afternoon.