Montgomerie Won’t Have Hand in It

A bad thing happened to Colin Montgomerie on his way to breakfast Thursday morning. He fell down, injured his right hand and wound up having to pull out of the British Open after completing seven holes.

Montgomerie said he was leaving his hotel and missed the first step because he looked up and saw it was raining.

“[I] fell nastily and tried to break my fall with my right hand,” he said. “I am going home to have it X-rayed and hopefully, I haven’t done anything more nasty, I hope. It is very painful, very.”

Montgomerie’s streak of bad luck continues in the British Open. He has one top-10 finish in 14 appearances. He said he was limited to about a half a dozen shots on the driving range because of the injury, but he tried to play anyway.

“Because it was the British Open and given the competitive nature of who I am, I just had to give it a go and unfortunately it wasn’t to be,” he said.

Montgomerie was four over par through seven holes.

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Injury news II: His back hurts so much, it’s hard to bend over.

“Or just put your shoes on,” said Fred Couples, who nevertheless opened with a 71 that could have been even better. He was two under through 12 holes but didn’t feel all that disappointed.

Couples said he popped something in his back in April at the Wachovia Championship and has been hurting since. He said his back can go out at any time and if it does, it could take two months to heal.

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel good enough,” said Couples, who estimates he has been able to hit no more than two buckets of balls in practice since hurting his back.

Couples, 43, who has eight top-10s in 14 British Open appearances, said if his back acts up, he would have no choice.

“I’m going to have to stop,” he said. “But right now, I’m good enough to be here, slashing it around.”

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Injury news III: Jerry Kelly had to withdraw because of an injury to his finger, but he said he wasn’t quitting because of the way he played, on his way to a 15-over 86.

Kelly started with an 11, carding a septuple bogey at the par-four first hole.

How he did it was anything but routine. Kelly drove into the left rough and left his second shot in the rough. He hit his third shot across the fairway into the right rough. Kelly took four hacks at the ball, moving it less than 15 feet, before declaring an unplayable lie, a one-shot penalty.

With his ninth shot, Kelly flew the green. He chipped on and made a 15-foot putt for an 11.

“People will ask me, ‘How did you make an 11?’ and I’ll say ‘I made a 30-footer, man.’ ”

Kelly, who injured his finger on his second shot at the 17th after his ball stopped behind a clump of grass, said his poor start was just one of those things.

“I made a mistake off the tee and we hadn’t felt that grass this wet this week,” he said. “I’ve hit shots out of that all week and they’ve come out fine.”

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Injury news IV: Paul Azinger was the third player who withdrew because of an injury. Azinger, who has battled back problems this year, was six over through nine holes when he said he couldn’t go on.

“I haven’t said much about it, but it’s been awful,” he said. “My swing is predicated on speed and I can’t rotate.”

Azinger is 213th on the money list and has made two cuts in 13 tournaments.

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Phil Mickelson was happy with his roller-coaster round of 74 that featured seven pars, six bogeys, three birdies, an eagle and a double bogey.

“We saw a lot of guys shoot themselves out of it, so I’m very pleased with three over,” he said.

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A double-bogey, bogey finish dropped Tom Watson from three under to even par, so his response was predictable when he was asked if it was a great feeling to see his name on the scoreboard at three under.

“It would have been a better feeling if I had finished three under par,” Watson said.

Royal St. George’s hasn’t been very friendly to Watson, 53, who has won the British Open five times, but not on this course. Watson tied for 23rd in 1981, tied for 47th in 1985 and missed the cut in 1993.

“I finished ugly, but 17 and 18 are very difficult driving holes and you have to hit a perfect drive to hit the fairway and I didn’t do that and I paid a penalty for it and it turned a very enjoyable round into an average round.”

Watson has a new caddie this week to replace Bruce Edwards, who has Lou Gehrig’s disease.

“He has a terrible disease that is wasting his body away at the moment and couldn’t make the trip. But he was here in spirit,” Watson said.

Neil Oxman caddied for Watson. A Philadelphia political consultant, Oxman is a former caddie for Andy North and Gary McCord.