Montgomerie's rivals turn green

Golf

When Colin Montgomerie first partnered Nick Faldo in the Ryder Cup he knew his place and regarded the experience of playing in the Englishman's shadow as a great honour. The two expect to play together again in the match against the United States next month and this time it is Faldo who should feel privileged.

Big Monty, untouchable from tee to green in the Volvo German Open here, is in pole position on the Cup grid; Faldo, out of the top 10 and out of Europe, has to rely on a push start from the captain, Bernard Gallacher. Yesterday Gallacher stated unequivocally that Faldo, who has had his worst run in the majors since 1986, would receive one of his wild cards. The other he is keeping up his sleeve until Monday but it will almost certainly go to Jose-Maria Olazabal.

For others, including Ian Woosnam, Stuttgart is the crossroads: one road leads to a ticket for New York on Concorde, the other to an armchair in front of the telly. The long and the short of it is that Woosnam, Europe's most successful player at The Belfry two years ago with four and a half points out of five, could be reaching for the slippers.

One of the reasons he has not made the team on merit is that he is beginning to putt like Bernhard Langer at his worst. As it happens, Langer, the victim of several attacks of the dreaded yips, was pretty poor on the greens yesterday but he has never resorted to the "broomstick" putter.

Woosnam is so confused he was not sure what to do in the second round. He loaded his bag with a conventional putter and the pendulum version and at various stages he used both. But for the fact he was wearing the same shirt, you might have thought you were watching two different tournaments.

The little Welshman, with another 69, at least made the half-way cut to keep alive his chance of moving from 13th in the Cup rankings into the top 10, but he is not in the mood to bet on it. From tee to green his game is excellent; on the green his mind is in turmoil. "It's killing me," he said. "I might as well putt with a one iron or even my sand wedge. It's as if the ball is determined not to go in the hole. Tomorrow? I can't be bothered."

Woosnam, using the short putter, had two birdies and an eagle in the first four holes but by the 11th he had reached for the broomstick. He missed from four feet at the 12th with the long one and from four feet at the 14th with the short one. A double-bogey seven at the last, where he drove into water and finally took three putts from 12 feet (with the broomstick) compounded the agony.

Gary Orr set a course record of 63 to share the lead at 10 under, a stroke in front of a group that contains the generous figure of Montgomerie. Big Monty shot 64 and had he been more fortunate on the greens he could, he maintained, have set a world record. "I would like to tell you about my front nine," Monty began. An extraordinary tale it was too. He went to the turn in 32 and missed three putts from 10 feet, two from eight and one from five. You don't have to be Einstein to work out that the 32 could have been 26.

The longest putt he made all day was from six feet. "They're just not going in," he said. Where have we heard this before? The difference between Big Monty and Little Woosie is about 80 places in the Order of Merit; one looks as if he could win a tournament every time he tees it up, the other has become accustomed to packing his suitcase on a Friday night.

Both, however, are suffering mental anguish. Montgomerie, compiling a record as a bridesmaid rather than the bride, has been bloodshot in Oxshott since losing the USPGA in a play-off. "I haven't slept since," he said. "I'm playing the putts again in my head. My lingering thought is that I should have won. I played the best golf, I deserved better. There's always one guy who putts better than me. My game has improved 100 per cent and my putting's 40 per cent worse."

And he scores 64. Yesterday three Ryder Cup candidates, Howard Clark, Per-Ulrik Johansson and Miguel Angel Jimenez, would have been content to share some of Monty's problems. They missed the cut. Johannson is currently ninth in the pecking order but by tomorrow evening Gallacher might well be saying: alas, Per-Ulrik, I knew him well.