Colin Montgomerie could be forgiven if he was planning to take things easy for the next few years.
Recently re-married to a widowed mother of four young children, he surely has enough on his plate domestically, not to mention enough money in the bank, to be able to let things slide on the work front without fear of reproach.
Yet nothing, it seems, could be further from his mind. Having turned 45 last month, the Scot believes he is on the cusp of a return to the kind of form that will lift him back into the world’s top 50, and set his sights on playing until well beyond his 50th birthday.
PHOTO: AP
Montgomerie is currently struggling to qualify for Europe’s team for the Ryder Cup in September, and even admitted earlier this month that, on current form, he would expect captain Nick Faldo to opt for Padraig Harrington and Luke Donald as his wildcard picks.
But he remains confident he can remain competitive on the tour until his current exemption expires in 2015, by which time he anticipates having played in both the 2010 and 2012 Ryder Cups before captaining the side that will take on the Americans at Gleneagles in 2014.
Apparently revitalized following his second marriage, to Gaynor Knowles in April, Montgomerie is bullish about his prospects of building on recent signs that stability is also returning to his golf game.
“I think I’m very close to playing the way I used to,” said the man who topped the European tour’s money list an unprecedented eight times between 1993 and 2005 before the disintegration of his first marriage and subsequent divorce sent his career into freefall.
Montgomerie admits that dropping out of the world’s top 100 — which he did briefly last month — proved useful as a kind of shock therapy.
“When you’ve been second in the world as I was in 1996 and 1997, to drop down there — you go ‘what the hell is going on?’ It was a little bit of a gee-up.”
Montgomerie added: “Now the plan is to get back into the top 50 by the end of the year and then go from there.
“I’m exempt on this tour until I’m 52, that’s 2015, and I plan on playing until then and I plan on trying to improve until then. Then I think that will do me and I will stop,” he said.
Skeptics will point to the fact that this is not the first time that Montgomerie has boldly predicted a dramatic turnaround in his waning fortunes.
At this time last year he was in even more ebullient mood after producing a final round 65 to win the European Open. That proved to be a false dawn and he subsequently missed the cut in both the Scottish and British Opens.
A first round 69 here on Thursday got him off to a solid start in this year’s Scottish Open but Montgomerie still has plenty to do to convince the world his second coming is nigh.
JOHN DEERE CLASSIC
AP, SILVIS, Illinois
Kenny Perry continued his best run in more than two decades on the PGA Tour, firing a six-under 65 on Thursday in the first round of the John Deere Classic that put him one stroke off the lead.
The 47-year-old Perry is right behind Ken Duke and Charlie Wi in a tie for third after winning two events last month. Woody Austin was in a group at 5-under, with last year’s Masters champion Zach Johnson five strokes behind the leaders.
Play was delayed briefly in the morning because of lightning in the area and again for 1 hour, 55 minutes in the afternoon. Perry was gone by then and, maybe, back in bed.
Unable to fall asleep after his hotel fire alarm went off at 3:30am, a bleary-eyed Perry had enough energy to birdie his first three holes at TPC Deere Run. He started on the par-five No. 10 and drove a sand wedge to 18 feet, then hit a nine-iron within 11 feet on the par-four 11th before driving a five-iron to 10 feet on the par-three 12th.
“I just feel very comfortable here,” he said. “It’s kind of in my element here, in my wheelhouse.”
He missed a 15-foot birdie putt on his final hole that would have put him in a tie for first. Even so, it was another good round, one of many in recent weeks.
“Well, I’ve had runs,” Perry said.
None like this, though.
Perry had a memorable four-tournament run in 2003, when he won the Colonial and Memorial on back-to-back weeks and tied for third at the US Open before taking first at the Greater Milwaukee Open. This one is approaching the two-month mark. It started when he lost a playoff to Ryuji Imada at the AT&T Classic in May and continued with victories at the Memorial and Buick Open last month.
He usually plays well on those courses, and he’ll be at another favorite stop next week when he returns to Brown Deer Park Golf Course in Milwaukee next week.
“They’re all lined up one after another, and I think that’s the reason why,” Perry said when asked to explain this run.
Yet for all the shots he’s made lately, Perry has also absorbed his share for passing on majors.
Ineligible for the Masters, he decided to skip the 36-hole qualifying for the US Open the day after winning the Memorial because he was tired. Then, he raised a few more eyebrows by choosing to honor his commitment at Milwaukee rather than go to the British Open, even though this seems like his best shot at a major.
The Kentucky native is more consumed with helping the US win the Ryder Cup at Valhalla in Louisville, so he set a schedule he thought would land him on the team.
“That’s the only goal I’ve got,” Perry said. “I’m not really focusing toward the majors or nothing. I’ll get to play the PGA here in a few weeks and I’m looking forward to that.”
JAMIE FARR CLASSIC
AFP, SYLVANIA, OHIO
American Paula Creamer birdied nine of her last 11 holes en route to a sizzling 11-under-par 60 during the opening round of the US$1.3 million LPGA Jamie Farr Classic on Thursday.
The 60 was one shot off the LPGA Tour record set by Annika Sorenstam in the second round of the 2001 Standard Register PING on a par-72 Highland Meadows Golf Club course.
“I haven’t been really able to make too many putts in the past couple of weeks, but I guess I saved them all up for today,” she said. “I was always in the zone. It was only in the last couple of holes when I started to think about [the score].”
In order to reach the hallowed mark of 59, Creamer needed to hole out an iron shot from the fairway on the last hole. Instead, she sank a 20-foot birdie putt to conclude the best round of her career.
The 21-year-old smashed her previous low round on the LPGA Tour by four shots. She also matched the tour record for nine holes with a 27 on the front nine.
“There were a couple of putts out there that went away,” Creamer said. “I missed one five-footer straight up the hill at the 11th. There were definitely more birdies, but I’ll take the 60.”
Enjoying a banner season with two wins and seven top-10s in 15 events, Creamer holds a commanding five-shot lead over Ji Eun-hee and Gloria Park, who each signed for a 65 during the first round.
“I haven’t been very good the last couple of tournaments,” Park said. “I’ve started hitting better and am feeling really good. I’m glad I finished it today before the weather started getting bad.”
The round was halted because of lightning with 21 players yet to finish their opening 18 holes.
Katie Futcher is the closest of those players to the top of the leaderboard, going three-under through her first 15 holes. She is currently in a nine-way tie for ninth.
Eva Dahllof and Young Kim are tied for fourth after carding a five-under 66 and three players are in a tie for sixth at four-under.
Pak Se-ri, who owns a record-tying five titles at this event, carded a first-round 68. The South Korean had held the previous course record of 10-under 61.
“This golf course is forgiving. You can go really low,” Pak said.
Pak won here for the first time in 1998 and again the following year.
She added victories in 2001, 2003 and last season, and shares the record as the only player to win the same event five times with Mickey Wright and Sorenstam, who has done it at two different events.
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