Golf: Practice pays off for Montgomerie

JUST BECAUSE Tiger Woods' name was at the top of the leaderboard after the opening round at Sahalee, there is no guarantee that the world No1 will go on to win the 80th USPGA Championship. Not one of his nine victories as a professional saw Woods as the first-round leader. Royal Birkdale last month continued the trend of the 22 year old not being able to hang on from start to finish.

Woods began at the Open with a 65 and closed with a 66 but what happened in between meant he only finished. Yesterday, his closest challengers, who included the 1993 USPGA champion Paul Azinger, began two strokes behind but with the aim of overtaking Woods' four-under score before the leader teed off in the afternoon.

Colin Montgomerie, after a level par opening that tied the efforts of Ian Woosnam and Andrew Coltart, started his second round only two strokes out of second place. He quickly made those up when he birdied the par- five second with two woods to 25ft and two putts and then the fourth.

Despite his early tee time, the Scot was out on the practice range even earlier. Always a man of extremes, the Montgomerie who thought he did not need to practice has been banished. Now he thinks he is Vijay Singh. Even Monty has seen the light after it became blindingly obvious when he missed the cut for the fifth time in seven years at the Open.

Asked what prompted the new regime, Montgomerie replied: "There is a thing called the British Open and I'm not there on Saturday enough.

"I did not play very well but I'm satisfied with the score," Montgomerie added after this first-round 70. "But I would have been satisfied whatever because I have given 100 per cent and I can't honestly say I have done that a lot of the time. Sometimes I have just turned up and played, but I have been practising very hard and I never lacked determination to keep going."

Encouraged by his putting, the thing that has dispirited him most this season, Montgomerie could still not shake the hook that has crept into his long game. "I have been working on getting my fade back in practice but it did not quite work as well as I would have liked. It is funny how things change on Thursday."

At least there were no problems with the gallery, as was the case at the US Open in San Francisco in June. Instead, it was the Florida-based Nick Faldo who reported an incident. Faldo was on the putting green after a lesson with Ben Crenshaw on Thursday afternoon when he was heckled by three young adults, who were promptly thrown off the course.

Faldo's attempt to make only his fourth cut in eight majors began late in the afternoon, but Lee Westwood needed to improve on his first-round 74 to continue his run of never missing a cut in America. A five-iron to four feet at the first was a good stay but he then went in the water at the next to take a bogey-six and dropped another shot at the third.

Left with a devilish putt from the lower tier - he might have been better off chipping the ball - Westwood did well to only three-putt. The Englishman, who is the leader of the European order of merit, then bogeyed the eighth but he was not the only recent multiple winner to be underperforming. For all David Duval's five wins on the US tour since last October, he opened with a 78.

One stroke better, remarkably in the circumstances, was Stuart Appleby. The Australian lost his wife Renay in a accident at Waterloo three weeks ago.

"I knew it was going to be a tough day, not a normal day," Appleby said. "I certainly felt her presence but trying to deal with her not being here physically is tough. It would be nice to look up and see her, but I have to get used to doing things without her."

Tim Glover, page 23

COMPLETE FIRST-ROUND SCORES

(US unless stated)

66 T Woods

68 B Estes, G Day, F Lickliter, P Azin-ger, B Glasson, S Maruyama (Japan), C Stadler, B Andrade, S Gump.

69 R Cochran, P-U Johansson (Swe), B Tway, M O'Meara, T Dodds (Nam), S Stricker, K Perry, S McCarron, H Frazar, S Elkington (Aus).

70 C Parry (Aus), A Magee, A Coltart (GB), B Crenshaw, I Woosnam (GB), B Faxon, N Price (Zim), M Calcavecchia, J Leonard, T Tryba, D Love, D Hart, J Huston, Lee Rinker, S Simpson, E Romero (Arg), C Montgomerie (GB), P Mickelson, F Funk, B Jobe, D Frost (SA), V Singh (Fij), J Parnevik (Swe), P Goydos, J D Blake.

71 J Schuman, J Maggert, C Franco (Par), J Carter, J Cook, T Lehman, J Sluman, C Pavin, P H Horgan, R Karlsson (Swe), J Sindelar, S Verplank, L Mattiace, G Kraft.

72 E Terasa, P Lonard (Aus), D Toms, T Watson, L Roberts, S Pate, M Brooks, J Furyk, J Haas, G Turner (NZ), B Gaus, B Ford, R Allenby (Aus), S Leaney (Aus), H Sutton, P Stankowski, B Watts, E Els (SA), S Hoch, S Kendall, T Byrum.

73 B Geiberger, N Ozaki (Japan), N Faldo (GB), C Perry, S Cink, R Goosen (SA), C Dennis, K Triplett, S Keppler (GB), R Thompson, D Ogrin, B Mayfair, T Kite, T Herron, B Fabel, O Browne, I Garrido (Spa), C Rocca (It).

74 G Fieger, K Sutherland, J P Hayes, P Sjoland (Swe), M Ozaki (Japan), L Westwood (GB), F Couples, D Waldorf, R Damron, M Mielke, K Stauffer.

75 M Burke, N Lancaster, M Wiebe, J Kelly, G Chalmers (Aus), L Mize, S Flesch, T Bjorn (Den), J Durant, J M Olazabal (Spa), F Nobilo (NZ), R Mediate.

76 P Stewart, D Duval, L Janzen, G Hjertstedt (Swe), S Lowery, W Grady (Aus).

77 D Sutherland, B Boyd, J Overton, S Appleby (Aus), T Smith, R McDougal.

78 J Lankford, T Armour III, C Tucker, J Thomsen, S Will-iams, R Stelten.

79 B Zabriski, K Schall, G Waite (NZ), P Blackmar.

80 T Tolles, K Kimball, J Daly.

81 A Geiberger, W Frantz.

84 B Groff.

85 P Earnest.