COLIN Montgomerie's chances of belatedly qualifying for the Masters appear to be running out after the Scot finished the opening round of the World Golf Championship event in Miami third from last.
If he wanted, Montgomerie could give himself two more chances of earning his way to the first major of 2008 by winning one of the next two US PGA Tour events in New Orleans and Houston. However, he has no plans to play in either, and judging by his f
orm the past couple of weeks, it might be a waste of time anyway.
The 44-year-old Troon-based player needs a top-four finish here to jump into the top 50 in the world and therefore qualify for the Masters, but it would take a dramatic transformation for that to happen. He signed for 75 at Doral Resort's Blue Monster in Miami on Thursday – four bogeys in a miserable five-hole stretch around the turn ruined his card – and was last night struggling to make the cut.
Montgomerie pulled out of last week's European Tour event in South Korea to play the Arnold Palmer Invitational instead, where there were more world ranking points on offer. But he missed the cut in Orlando, and his start in Miami suggests this week is not going to be much better.
Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez and Australia's Geoff Ogilvy ended the first day at the top of the leaderboard after going round in 65. Stewart Cink was one behind, and included in a group of five players on 67 was, ominously for the rest of the field, Tiger Woods.
The world No1 bogeyed the final hole to fall two strokes off the lead, but he remained very much the man to beat after the opening round. Woods was in a sour mood after three-putting the last on a day when Jimenez stormed home with a late rush to tie Ogilvy for the lead with a seven-under-par 65.
"I didn't really do anything all that special," said Woods, who has won this World Golf Championship event six times in eight attempts. "I hung in there and took care of the par-fives and made a couple other birdies but all in all I just ground it out.
"I wasn't hitting the ball all that poorly. I was hitting it in the right spots and just didn't make any putts until 15 and 16. You three-putt 18, you're not going to be real happy."
Woods has won his past seven tournaments in a streak that stretches back more than six months, perhaps explaining why yesterday's round of 67 seemed relatively ordinary.
Jimenez birdied four of the final five holes to tie for the lead, but he has been around far too long to get overly excited about one round. "I played well and holed some four-five footers for birdie," said the 44-year-old from Malaga. "When you're hitting it well and holing some putts, you expect to shoot 65."
Ogilvy, the 2006 US Open champion, continued his recent resurgence with a tidy round that included seven birdies.
He missed the cut in his first three starts of the year, perhaps no coincidence considering his second child was born in January, but top-15 finishes in his past two tournaments suggest that his start here was no fluke. "I played well, gave myself a lot of chances and I made those chances," he said.
Despite a moderate northerly breeze, the course was relatively easy, perhaps because a couple of the tougher holes, notably the par-four 18th, played downwind. Luke Donald and Ross Fisher shot 68 to head a mixed British contingent, with Justin Rose and Nick Dougherty on 70.
Dougherty is playing his first tournament in Miami, but that does not mean he is a stranger in town. "I love this part of the world," he said. "I come on holiday here twice a year, not to Doral, to South Beach, but it's close enough. And I grew up coming here on holiday, because my parents live in Orlando, so it's kind of a home from home for me."
Even so, this is just Dougherty's third World Golf Championships event, which is a little strange when he has played in seven major championships. The 25-year-old was quite pleased with is opening round, even though it paled in comparison with the 65s carded by leaders Jimenez and Ogilvy.
Dougherty is comfortably ensconced inside the top ten on the European Ryder Cup standings, thanks largely to a victory at last year's Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews. With so much prize money and world ranking points on offer this week, a high finish, let alone a victory, will vault him, or anyone else for that matter, up the rankings.
Jimenez could certainly do with a big finish to kick-start his Ryder Cup hopes, because he currently is just outside the top ten, even though he won the Hong Kong Open in November. The 44-year-old from Malaga has been on two previous teams, the losing side in 1999 and the winning team in 2004. Coincidentally, both his previous appearances were made when the competition was held in the United States, as it will be this year.
Jimenez has come close in this event before, losing a play-off to Tiger Woods nine years ago at Valderrama. That was back in the days when the tournament was slated to rotate between US and Europe, before the PGA Tour decided to keep it not only exclusively in the United States, but at the same course.
The full article contains 947 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
