GOLF European Tour: Finishing second to Tiger Woods at the British Open has convinced Colin Montgomerie that all things are possible again.

With the cheers of the St Andrews crowd still fresh in his mind and the US PGA Championship just a week away Montgomerie said yesterday his confidence is at a level he has not felt for five years.

And that confidence could be given another sizeable boost in the Johnnie Walker Championship starting at Gleneagles today - a top-two finish will send Montgomerie to Baltusrol as number one on the European Order of Merit.

That is a position he has not occupied since completing a phenomenal seven successive money list titles in 1999.

"It is nice to know it can come back," said the 42-year-old. "A lot of you - and I - had doubts, thinking 'Monty is past his best, he has had his time at the top'. If I win it (Order of Merit) again it would be worth much more than all seven put together.

"I haven't been there for a while, but believe me, I know exactly what to do when I get there."

Montgomerie finished five strokes behind Woods in the Open, but the fact that he beat everyone else still made it one of the best performances of his career in his own opinion.

"I finished second to the best player in the world, the best player of our generation," he added. I've now finished second in three of the four majors and almost have a Grand Slam of second places, but after what happened at the Open I have to look back on the positives and not the negatives.

"I'm almost back to where I was in the 90s . I think I'm a putt a round away - four shots a tournament. That's not bad."

Monty is entitled to feel unlucky that he does not already have at least one major to his name. He lost play-offs to Ernie Els and Steve Elkington in the 1994 US Open and 1995 US PGA respectively and was also second to Els again in the 1997 US Open.

Although second place would enable him to overtake US Open champion Michael Campbell at the head of the money list, a win is what Montgomerie has really come looking for. His last one was March last year.

Technically, he could hand the trophy to himself if he does it. The Ryder Cup star doubles up as tournament chairman for an event he hopes will become bigger and bigger on the circuit.

With Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Paul McGinley and Graeme McDowell not competing this weekend, the Irish in action are Damian McGrane, Gary Murphy, Peter Lawrie, Stephen Browne and Philip Walton.

McGrane started the last day of the Scandinavian Masters last week at five under par, but slipped to tied 11th. However, it is not expected to affect his confidence at Gleneagles.

Lawrie will look to repeat his form of the last day in Scandinavia after he had six birdies on his way to round of 67 to eventually finish tied 25th.

With the final major of the season coming up only two others from the world's top 50 take part this week, Australian Richard Green and England's David Howell, who has been out of action since tearing an abdominal muscle at the US Open.

"The Open was my target, but it became apparent that that deadline was way off the mark," said Howell. "I expect I'll be ring-rusty, but I'm not setting any major goals for this week."

The Swindon golfer has dropped from second to seventh on the Order of Merit during his lay-off - and celebrated his 30th birthday - and added: "It's a tough task now to win it, but 10th last year was my best finish and if I beat that it would be another step forward."