Scowl Play Works for Montgomerie

For about six months this year, Colin Montgomerie was as polite as anyone had ever seen him. He also wasn’t playing very well. For the last two months, he has been more like the old Monty, kind of cranky. He has also been playing better. Go figure.

At the Dunhill Championship, Montgomerie gave a no-nonsense, no comment after his last round when he tied for fifth. Then at the Volvo Masters, he tied for seventh, didn’t like the line of questioning and let everyone know why. Said Monty, “I want to talk about me ... about my back, about my putting, about my game--that’s what I want to talk about.”

Talk about attitude, he has got it again. Montgomerie’s swagger has returned and that can only be considered good news for the 38-year-old Scotsman. He shot a four-under-par 68 Friday at soggy Sherwood Country Club and made a positive move in the second round of the 18-player, $4.1-million Williams World Challenge.

He did it with 27 putts, 11 fewer than he needed the day before, when he shot a one-over 73. He just isn’t sure how it happened, but Montgomerie did offer one insightful explanation.

“Golf is a crazy game,” he said.

It’s an odd one, at the very least, especially when you consider that despite being the top player in Europe for a decade, despite having led the Order of Merit money list a record seven times, and despite 26 victories on the European Tour, Montgomerie hasn’t won a major. He wouldn’t mind turning that around in 2002, which is why he has been so active in the year-ending special events. Sherwood is his third tournament in three weeks, a span in which he has gone from Indio for the Skins Game to South Africa for Sun City to Thousand Oaks.

“It’s been quite tough,” Montgomerie said. “It’s been a bit of a nightmare.”

It has also been hard on his lower back, which has been bothering Montgomerie for more than a month. Tests show muscle problems and doctors have recommended that he take time off--up to nine weeks--to rest it.

If he does, that’s probably going to set back his 2002 competition timetable, but he believes he is getting ready nonetheless. He has trimmed 20 pounds from his 6-foot-1 frame, thanks to a diet and 45 minutes of stomach exercises in the morning and again in the evening. Montgomerie also has spent time working on his swing with Callaway guru Dick Helmstetter, and is testing two new drivers.

“It’s all preparations for next year,” Montgomerie said. “If I thought I’d played my best round of golf already, I’d give up. I want to improve. I’m good enough to win if I improve. If I stand still, I will be overtaken.”

He won the Irish Open the last week of June, two weeks after he’d shot 77-74 in the last two rounds of the U.S. Open and tied for 52nd. Four tournaments later, Montgomerie won the Volvo Scandinavian Masters, and after he tied for 76th at the PGA Championship, he was fourth at the NEC Invitational.

The comeback was only beginning, though, and it was signaled by the return of some of the normal bounce in Montgomerie’s step, not to mention the edge to his attitude. He said that even though he hardly enjoyed being shut out at the Skins Game, he is really going to be frosted if the “validation” format is changed for next year.

“We would be seen as the guinea pigs for something that didn’t work,” he said.

Simply not acceptable, he added.

And that’s the Colin Montgomerie everyone knows best.

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Vijay Singh shot a six-under 66 and leads Tiger Woods by a shot after Friday’s second round. Woods, who had a 67, birdied two of the last three holes and is at nine-under 135.

“Windy, blustery, rainy, it was just a tough day,” Woods said.

Bernhard Langer, after a 68, is next at 137, tied with Fred Couples, who shot a 71. Because of rain, players were allowed to lift, clean and place. Jesper Parnevik’s 65 was the low round of the day. He trails Singh by four shots.