Wales OpenColin Montgomerie admitted "I blew it" after squandering a stunning start to his second round of the Celtic Manor Wales Open yesterday. Montgomerie was five under par after seven holes on a Roman Road course which has already yielded one score of 60 and two 61s so far this week.
But the eight-time European number one then bogeyed three of his next eight holes and was forced to settle for a 66 and nine under par halfway total of 129.
That left the 42-year-old Scot five shots behind leader Robert Karlsson of Sweden, and hugely frustrated. "I'm very disappointed," said Montgomerie, who has never won a tournament in Wales. "Five under after seven was a great start and I blew it really to only finish three under from there.
"The last month my game has been 50 per cent and it's now 70 per cent so it's going in the right direction at least, but it's not there yet, nowhere near. All I can do is try to improve and I am, but not fast enough. I'm very impatient like most people. I'm hitting the fairways okay but my chipping and putting is not as good as it should be."
Montgomerie was particularly frustrated by his bogey on the par five 16th, a 529-yard par five easily within reach for the majority of the field. "I'm very disappointed, especially with 16," he added. "Everyone on the leaderboard is making birdie there and I made bogey so there's two or three shots gone."
Karlsson got off to a near-identical start to Montgomerie and was also five under after seven, but also matched the Scot's bogey on the eighth and carded just two birdies and one bogey on the back nine. The Monaco-based 36-year-old has not won on the European Tour since his fifth tournament victory in 2002, but ended the day four shots clear of first-round pacesetter Phillip Archer, Paul Broadhurst and Simon Dyson.
"Last year I played very well for long periods but my putting was terrible," admitted Karlsson. "I've worked a lot on the mental side of the game and tried to enjoy it more out on the course. Definitely before I would get hot under the collar. I would never be able to play so many weeks in a row (this is his sixth) and keep it up."
Paul McGinley - back in action a fortnight after knee surgery - missed the cut but Michael Hoey continued his good run with a one-under-par 68 for a halfway total of 132. Peter Lawrie was also hoping for a high finish after a 68 left him on 134, the same mark as David Higgins, while Graeme McDowell is on 135 after a 67.
Archer of course was the man who came agonisingly close to the first 59 on the European Tour in the first round, when his birdie putt on the 18th lipped out. Not surprisingly he struggled to follow that up with another low score and carded a 68 to finish alongside Yorkshire's Dyson (62) and Broadhurst, who boosted his chances of a Ryder Cup place with a second consecutive 64.
Dyson's 62 was not the lowest round of the day, however, Portugal's Jose-Filipe Lima carding a 61 after also threatening to break the magical 60 barrier. Lima raced to the turn in just 30 shots and then birdied the 12th and 13th, holing a bunker shot on the latter to stand seven under for the round with five holes remaining.
The French-born 24-year-old then holed from 30ft for another birdie on the 14th but crucially three-putted the next for bogey when his birdie putt caught the edge of the hole and span four feet away.
The biggest name to miss the cut was US Open champion Michael Campbell.
