COLIN MONTGOMERIE took $100 off Phil Mickelson yesterday and then spoke of his high hopes of winning another £630,000 on Sunday. Montgomerie warmed up for the £2.25 million Players' Championship at Sawgrass, Florida, one of the richest events in the sport and often called golf's unofficial fifth major, by partnering Sandy Lyle to a practice round victory against Mickelson, winner of the Bay Hill Invitational on Sunday, and Billy Mayfair.
Europe's leading money winner for the last four seasons chipped in on the last hole to clinch the fourball match and, with a large grin, said: "It would be nice to do that again on Sunday."
Last year Montgomerie finished joint runner up behind Fred Couples; any chance of winning disappeared when his second shot to the long 16th hit the railway sleepers bordering the green and went into the lake.
"I had a look when I got back's there," he commented. "I went for the shot - I had to - but it's nice to be in a position where I know I can win this tournament."
He also knows the golfing world will not accept he has won a major until he lifts either the Masters, US Open, British Open or US PGA championship, but he added: "I do treat this as a major. Why it's not classified a major I don't know the field says it is."
For the first time in the history of the world rankings the top 50 are all present in the same tournament this week, battling for a title which Lyle won 10 years ago, just before landing the Masters.
Montgomerie is chasing his first win of the season, but in six starts he has yet to finish outside the top 20, and since coming to America three weeks ago he has come 20th, fourth and 19th.
He was set for a much higher finish than that at Bay Hill, but bogeyed the last hole. Far from discouraging him, however, he sees it as a blessing in disguise.
On arrival in Sawgrass on Monday, Montgomerie went to the travelling workshop of his club manufacturers and discovered his irons had become too flat.
As well as making the adjustment, and noticing immediately that he was hitting the ball straighter as a result, Montgomerie has new coach Dennis Pugh working with him this week.
Having parted company with Bill Ferguson, the man who taught him the game and took him to world number two, after last August's US PGA championship, Montgomerie went it alone for a while.
But now he says: "The new relationship is working well. We've been working on releasing the club more. I was guiding it. It's the first time Dennis (a former assistant of Nick Faldo's coach David Leadbetter) has watched me in practice for a tournament and it's been good. Tee to green I'm playing as well as I can.
"Now it's just a matter of scoring. That's up to me and so far this year I've not putted as well as I would like."
Nick Faldo, who won the Los Angeles Open at the start of this month but, curiously, has not had another top 20 finish in the States this season, is equally happy with the state of his game.
"My swing feels the best it has for yonks," he said, which sent American writers scurrying to find out the meaning of the word "yonks".
Ian Woosnam, who should have won in Dubai the same day as Faldo won, has had disappointing finishes of 35th and 47th since crossing the Atlantic, while Lyle's best finish was 18th in the Buick Invitational.
Lyle has not won now for nearly four and a half years, but Montgomerie said: "He seems more upbeat. He can still hit the ball so well, but he's just not as consistent as he would like."
Sam Torrance is also in the field. He has made a slow start to the year, missing three cuts and shooting 81 in the opening round of the Portuguese Open a fortnight ago.
