It has been claimed, by Welsh health psychologist Cliff Arnall, that, statistically, June 23rd is the happiest day of the year. He might well have converted Colin Montgomerie to that belief as the Scot spent the day, his 43rd birthday, basking in the adoring gaze of the Scottish galleries as he moved into the lead at the halfway stage of the Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles.
Montgomerie carded his second consecutive 68 around the testing par 73 PGA Centenary Course for a ten under par total of 136 to take a two shot lead into the weekend over his Ryder Cup colleague Paul Casey, who posted a second round 71 for an eight under par total of 138.
Immediately after stepping from the course, the Scot was troubled by another poor finish to a round, this time three putting from 20 feet for a par five on the ninth, which followed his bogey six on the 18th in Thursday’s opening round and, of course, his well documented double-bogey six at Winged Foot last Sunday which cost him the US Open Championship.
However, once he had worked the frustration of the blip out of his system, Montgomerie began to enjoy the moment and admitted he was in a good position. “Two 68s is good round here because the course is playing quite tough and the wind is up,” he said. “I look forward to coming here and trying to have another two 68s at the weekend and hopefully have a good finish.”
Certainly if he plays like he did for the majority of his second round, he will be a hard man to catch for, apart from the three putt par on the ninth, his ‘inward’ half was flawless, especially the stretch from the second to the seventh hole where he carded four birdies.
While the Scot did indeed garner support from almost all quarters of the crowd, it was not right across the board as an amusing incident on the 18th proved.
“There was a baby in the stands,” said Montgomerie. “I had a little chip up the green and Alistair said ‘Just be quiet please’ and the little baby says back ‘You be quiet!’ So what could you say to that, this kid is two years old!! So we just had a laugh and got on with it. First time I have been answered back by a two year old!”
Second placed Casey did well to recover after an unfortunate double bogey seven on the par five 12th. In a fairway bunker in two, the Englishman tried an explosive eight iron escape shot but caught the ball too thinly and saw it whiz into a nearby gorse bush.
Declaring the ball unplayable, Casey had to drop another ball back in the sand from where he missed the green again with his approach shot and had to pitch onto the putting surface and hole from six feet for a seven.
“There were a couple of unforced errors out there, I did have my moments, but I kept the head screwed on and battled through it,” said Casey. “I thought it was tougher this afternoon than the morning and I think the scores reflected that, nobody really made a charge towards Colin and he stayed on top so I am happy just to be a couple of shots behind.”
Sharing third on seven under par 139 were England’s Andrew Marshall, Marcus Fraser of Australia, and the Scandinavian duo of Denmark’s Søren Hansen and Robert Karlsson of Sweden, both of whom continued a good run of form which saw Hansen finish second in the BA-CA Golf Open, presented by Telekom Austria two weeks ago and Karlsson win The Celtic Manor Wales Open the week before.
Of the two, Karlsson was the best on Friday with a five under par 68, which featured a pitch-in eagle two at the 320 yard 14th, while Hansen’s 70 was fairly uneventful with a solitary bogey at the 12th being wiped out by four birdies elsewhere.
Marshall’s 67 proved the best round of the day – a testament to the testing conditions – while Fraser admitted he had been inspired to right some inconsistent form of his own by his nation’s efforts in the World Cup in Germany.
“I’ve jumped on board the Socceroos bandwagon definitely,” he said. “I still don’t know the rules but it is great and nice to see any Aussie team doing well so I will be watching with keen interest, I think it is next Tuesday they play again.
“Last night’s game was unbelievable, I thought they were playing Aussie Rules at one stage! It was pretty rough but I loved it even though we only saw about the last half an hour.”
Five players share seventh place on six under par 140 including the overnight leader Thomas Björn of Denmark, who could not reproduce the fireworks of his opening day 65 and had to settle for a two over par 75, a round which included a similar double bogey to that of Casey at the 12th and a bogey six at the last.
