Colin Montgomerie will aim to maintain his grip on Volvo-sponsored tournaments when he defends the Volvo Scandinavian Masters at Kungsängen, Stockholm, Sweden, this week.
Europe's No.1 for the past seven successive years collected his fourth title of the 1999 season with an emphatic nine stroke winning margin over a high quality field at Barsebäck in Malmo, shooting rounds of 67, 67, 65 and 69 for a 20 under par total of 268.
That victory enabled Montgomerie to pull off the Volvo double - the Volvo PGA Championship and Volvo Scandinavian Masters - and after capturing the PGA crown at Wentworth Club for the third successive year in May, he goes to Sweden attempting to emulate that 1999 feat.
Jesper Parnevik, the winner in 1995 and 1998, returns to Europe to play over the course where he won two years ago with a 15 under par total of 273. Parnevik, a double winner on the US PGA Tour this season, finished runner-up last year, nine behind Montgomerie.
Also in the field are previous champions Joakim Haeggman (1997), Lee Westwood (1996) and Peter Baker (1993). Westwood has happy memories of the tournament four years ago as it provided him with his maiden victory on the European Tour and acted as a springboard to global success.
Ian Woosnam, Darren Clarke, Thomas Björn and Michael Campbell add to the quality of the field while a further ten champions of the 2000 season are playing the Stockholm course which means "King's Meadow" in Swedish.
The course, designed by Anders Forsbrand and remodelled by European Golf Design, was opened in 1994 but had all 18 greens completely reconstructed in two phases during 1995 and 1996 in addition to major works on tees, bunkers, drainage and irrigation systems.
Indeed every hole has had some work done to it. The back of the first green has been levelled and enlarged with the front lifted and also levelled. The back right of the third green has also been lifted. The stone bunker on the eighth has been filled in while on the 11th the mound in front of the green has been removed. The 12th green has been reduced in size and three fairway bunkers on the 13th have been filled in. The right hand side of the 14th fairway has been extended and cleared and major tree clearance has been undertaken on the corner of the dogleg on the 17th.
1st Round Tee-Times
