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Colin's year? Relaxed Monty delighted with 3-over 74 at Carnoustie
Posted: Thursday July 15, 1999 04:18 PM
CARNOUSTIE, Scotland (AP) -- Maybe this finally is Colin Montgomerie's year. While some of his rivals were shooting scores in the high 70s and 80s at windswept Carnoustie on Thursday, Montgomerie produced his best ever first-round performance at the British Open on the toughest links course the Royal and Ancient could find. His 74 left him just three strokes off the lead and compared well with the 79s of U.S. Open champion Payne Stewart and David Duval, and much better than the 83 of defending titlist Mark O'Meara and 89 of teen-age star Sergio Garcia. The Scot whose Open performances have been disappointing to the point of embarrassing, admitted his performance was long overdue. "Forgetting the score, this is the best position I have been in and the best I've felt going into a second day," he said. "Mind you, that's not really saying much, is it?. "I don't have much of a record to go on here so anything is an improvement from what I have been showing at this tournament before." Two years ago at Troon, Montgomerie was playing at the course where he had played regularly as a youngster when his father was the course secretary. He shot a 76. Monty missed the cut at Royal Birkdale last year, the fifth time he had failed to make the third round. Now the 36-year-old Scot, who is still searching for his first major after a decade of trying, feels he is in the right frame of mind to do well at the Open. Montgomerie has won three tournaments this season on the European Tour, the last being the Loch Lomond event on Saturday when he finished with a 7-under 64. "I think last week's win has relaxed me into trying to enjoy this championship," he said. "If you say I'm unnaturally calm that's up to you but I am more relaxed than I have been coming into here and, hopefully, I can improve it with the scores on the next three days." It looked like the same old story for Montgomerie when he double bogeyed the par-3 eighth hole to go three over. But he matched three bogeys with three birdies to stay three over by the end of the round. "After eight, to play the next 10 holes on level par was a good effort," he said. "It's the best I have felt after one round of the Open championship. I am hoping that I won't add many to that total tomorrow." He still found the course, with its thick, sometimes knee-length rough and narrow fairways, demanding and tiring. "I'm just glad to get off there," he said. I was up and down like a yo-yo. "It's very tough. You've just got to live with it." But he didn't think like some players that the wind was the biggest influence to the high scoring. "People who do score badly here may say that," he said. "It can blow worse than this. This is just a breezy summer's day here, nothing more than that. "The course is very, very difficult and very, very demanding, the most demanding tournament that we have ever played," Montgomerie said. "It was only 30 days ago that we were saying that Pinehurst was the hardest course that we have played. We're all changing our opinion coming here. Some of the shots that have to be hit can't be made, no one's that good." Montgomerie prefers playing target golf to bump and run, links golf which makes Thursday's performance and score that much more impressive. He says he prefers the scores to come down to make the players look a little better. "The average score of over 79 is the highest it has ever been in any major anywhere," Montgomerie said. "Let's hope that the wind can die off and you can actually hit some shots that aren't going to look like you have hit bad ones. "I haven't been very fortunate at this tournament over the last few years. I have been saving it up I suppose."
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