U.S. OPEN : Montgomerie’s 65 Puts Him Two Up : Golf: Pudgy Scot is leader after two rounds, with Irwin, Cook and Edwards tied for second.

The U.S. Open took on a slightly European flavor Friday at Oakmont Country Club, where pudgy Scot Colin Montgomerie went on a diet of birdies and took the second-round lead.

Montgomerie, 30, whose geographical golf pedigree extends from the Scottish links to Houston Baptist University to the 1987 Scottish Amateur title, toured storied Oakmont in 65 shots for 136, taking a two-stroke lead over Hale Irwin, who shot a 69, and John Cook and Dave Edwards, who also shot 65s.

Jeff Maggert and Jack Nicklaus are three shots back at 139.

But everyone is chasing the man they call Monty, which is just the way he would have it.

“I am sort of looking forward to the pressures, actually,” Montgomerie said. “I have nothing to lose right now. I wanted to get in contention in a major championship and I am certainly that.”

Montgomery’s 36-hole total is six under par and has him in contention for his first major title.

Five birdies, an eagle and a single bogey contributed to Montgomerie’s 65.

“That’s as good as I can do, I think,” he said.

He came up with the main Montgomerie minute on the par-five, 474-yard ninth hole, when he knocked his second shot, a four-iron, into a bunker, then holed it from eight yards out for an eagle.

Montgomerie, who missed the cut at the Masters, is looking to revise recent history. No player from the British Isles has won the U.S. Open since England’s Tony Jacklin in 1970.

Frank Nobilo, Steve Pate, Curtis Strange and Ernie Els are at 140 and in fourth place. The only other golfers under par are Scott Triplett, Tom Watson, Emlyn Aubrey and Jeff Sluman at 141.

Cook, with his 65, took eight strokes off his first-round 73.

The 36-year-old, whose best U.S. Open finish was a tie for fourth in 1981, said he is carrying the flag for the 30-something generation.

“Jack (Nicklaus), obviously, when he is on, he is the greatest player that ever lived, because how many people are still contending in their 50s as good or close to it as they were in their 20s and 30s?” Cook said.

Perhaps the remarkable aspect of Cook’s 65 is that he didn’t get a lot of work on the greens because he didn’t arrive in Pittsburgh until Wednesday morning from his home in Rancho Mirage.

But at least he had a good reason.

“I was at home, watching my daughter in a piano recital and with my little boy in an 8-year-old all-star (baseball) game,” Cook said.

Irwin’s 69 matched his first-round score, but it was a lot more adventurous--three birdies, two bogeys, an eagle on No. 9 followed by a double-bogey on No. 10.

“I sort of lost my concentration a little bit,” Irwin said.

He moved into the lead with his eagle on the long ninth hole. He hit a two-iron on his second shot and knocked it within four feet, then rolled in the putt.

But on No. 10, Irwin hit his drive in the rough, chipped out 40 feet and three-putted from the front of the green.

He said he preferred to look at those two holes another way.

“If you take the two holes and put them together, I have two pars,” Irwin said. “Sort of a simple way of doing it, but I am pretty simple-minded.”

Pate, of Agoura, made it look pretty simple with a 66 that shot him into a tie for third at 140.

Following up Thursday’s 74, Pate toured the course at five under, rolling in a 60-foot birdie putt on No. 18.

“I hit a putt that was going off the green, hit the pit and went in,” said Pate, whose best U.S. Open finish was in 1988, when he was third at Brookline Country Club.

“Making that bomb on the last hole makes you feel a lot better,” he said.

Watson, the first-round leader, wasn’t feeling so well, but if he was looking for anyone to blame, he could start with his bag. It’s his putter’s fault.

Watson missed a six-foot birdie putt on No. 4, a 10-footer on No. 5, an uphill 15-footer on No. 6, a 15-footer on No. 7, a five-footer on No. 9, a 15-footer on No. 11, an uphill three-footer on No. 13 and three-putted from 14 feet on No 14.

“I let a pretty good score get away from me today,” Watson said.

Nicklaus was more forgiving of his round.

“Well, I made the cut,” he said.

The actual cut isn’t known yet because 18 golfers were still on the course when play was stopped--for the second day--just before 8 p.m. because of lightning.

However, it’s certain that defending champion Lee Janzen isn’t going to make it. He is at 148, seven over par. The cut figures to be no more than five over, which would spare Scott Simpson.

However it shakes out, Montgomerie is not threatened, at the moment. He isn’t the most popular Scot here, though--Sam Torrance is--and he has his critics.

One of them, Ryder Cup teammate David Feherty, describes one of Montgomerie’s looks as that of “a wart hog who’s just been stung by a wasp.”

If he wins the U.S. Open, though, even Montgomerie’s detractors may have to come up with something nice to say about him.