Monty's fortunes change

14 April 2012

Life on the golf course for Colin Montgomerie is often a series of wonderful highs and devastating lows and in two days at the Carlsberg Malaysian Open he has experienced both.

A day after imploding under the stresses of the oppressive Kuala Lumpur heat, losing five shots in his five holes to plummet from four under to one over par, Montgomerie's fortunes changed.

The Scotsman was back on song and played magnificent golf to return onto four-under par - the mark at which his decline had begun in the fog of dehydration and migraine - with an eagle on the 13th before the heavens opened and a spectacular tropical storm hit the course.

Exactly 18 holes after a double-bogey sparked his collapse Montgomerie had worked himself back to where he was - four-under-par, five holes to play and harbouring very real designs on finishing the round among the leaders.

Montgomerie had a feeling something special was in the air today - and when it landed on his shoulder, courtesy of a low flying bird as he walked to the 10th tee, that was all the confirmation he needed.

'I saw a black cat this morning on my way to the course and then got hit by a bird when I was walking from the ninth green to the 10th tee. I got a lot of bird droppings on my top and it finished down my trousers,' he said with a smile.

'Some of the guys said that was lucky. I didn't see it lucky right then, but you never know. It could be an omen.'

Montgomerie will have the chance to test that theory out first thing in the morning when the second round resumes and he continues his bid to close in on deaf South Korean Lee Sung-man and Thailand's Thaworn Wiratchant, the joint leaders on seven under par.

One stroke behind on six-under-par sat American Gary Hanrahan and Ireland's Paul McGinley, who cursed his over-aggression on the par-fives which cost him two bogeys.

Australian Terry Price double-bogeyed the 15th and dropped from eight-under-par to finish the day level with Frenchman Thomas Levet and Thailand's Prayed Marksaeng on minus five.

Wales' Stephen Dodd and England's James Hepworth will look to continue their solid starts on the resumption of play tomorrow after they joined the pack on five-under before play was suspended at 15.48 local time (0748 GMT) and eventually called off for the day.

Montgomerie had suffered badly from dehydration and a migraine yesterday, forcing him to have emergency ice-vests and an ice-cool visor flown in overnight from Australia and the new gear worked a treat.

He sank three birdies on the outward nine and a fourth on 12 to make up for his only bogey.

After waiting in vain for the claxon to sound and relieve him of having to go for eagle in 'hellish droplets of rain', Montgomerie eventually had to address his six-foot putt. As soon as it dropped play was suspended.

'I am again five-under (for the round) through 13 so we'll see how we go,' said Montgomerie.

'I am really back in a position now where hopefully we can finish off tomorrow and go forward. I have a long day tomorrow but I am very confident now.

'It's a very important five holes tomorrow. If I can get another couple of birdies then it's game on. I saw the scores this morning and nobody was really making a move - six-under leading yesterday, seven under today.'

Lee joined Wiratchant on top of the leaderboard after managing to do what few others could around this testing course and maintained his momentum.

The 24-year-old, who was born deaf and communicates by lip-reading, followed up yesterday's 69 with a four-under-par 68 today.

'I practiced at Saujana for a week last month and I like this course as it is very American-styled,' Lee said through his father.

'My overall game was good and I'm not surprised to be in the lead as I've been playing well.'

Lee only took the game up at 16-years-old after communication problems forced him to stop playing baseball, and won 16 amateur events in South Korea before turning professional.

He played on the Nationwide Tour between 2000 and 2003 and led at the Omaha Classic and Chatanooga Classic last year but after losing his card, Lee was encouraged by friend and fellow Korean KJ Choi to focus on the Asian Tour.
Last month won the Qualifying School and today he sank six birdies, including an 18-foot putt on the first and chip in on the ninth.

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