Golf: Hard labour on Burma Road

POLITICALLY incorrect as it may be, the West Course at Wentworth is once again living up to its now discredited nickname of the Burma Road. But for a few exceptions, progress up the leaderboard was slow and many of the competitors in the second round of the Volvo PGA Championship probably believed they had just suffered five hours of hard labour.

The Australian Peter Lonard proved one of the exceptions to the rule by crafting a 65 to reach seven under par, one shot behind Sweden's Michael Jonzon, and Andrew Coltart of Scotland another as he carded a 66 to stand six under. But such scoring was not found elsewhere.

Jonzon added a 70 to his opening 66, but behind the 26-year-old Swede the field is so bunched, covered by seven strokes, that anyone making the cut will feel they still have a chance. The world No 1, Ernie Els, scored his second 69 of the week to be only two behind without feeling at his best, but no one yo-yoed from being a potential non-qualifier to contender quicker than Colin Montgomerie.

The Scot carded a 70 to move to four under, but that hardly describes the extreme nature of his day. After a bogey at the 15th, caused by a poor drive that required a penalty drop, Montgomerie finished birdie, birdie, eagle.

"I have never been four under for the last three holes here," he said. "Yes, there are opportunities for birdies over those holes, but there are opportunities for disaster as well. I must have leapfrogged 30 or 40 people."

The key to his finish was his driving. He hit every fairway over the last three holes - and almost holed his seven-iron approach to the last - but if that is what is expected of the straight-hitting Montgomerie, it had not been produced earlier in the round.

"I haven't driven the ball as badly as that for a long time," he said. "I hit the first and third fairways and then the next I hit was the 16th. I have no idea what the matter was but it seemed to sort itself out on the 16th. I'm not going to bother going to the range. On a positive note, I can't possibly play as badly again and I won't. To play as badly as that and get a 70 out of it is encouraging."

Montgomerie's recovery was sparked by the two-iron he hit after his penalty drop at the 15th, a shot which required 50 yards of cut. Quite how good, enquired the correspondent of another Sunday newspaper who found fame last week when he won a pounds 189,000 Lamborghini for a hole in one, was the shot? "Not as good as yours," came the reply. "It wasn't worth as much. I've still got a mortgage."

Obviously the Scot's mood was improved by his finish. "Colin should be in a better mood tomorrow," said Els, his playing partner. "Today, man..." He left the thought trailing. The South African was also pleased with his score given that he felt he "should have been over par".

But Montgomerie saw enough to declare: "If anyone beats Ernie Els, they'll win. He hasn't done an awful lot so far but he is right there. That must be why he is the world No 1."

High on the rankings for greenkeepers is Chris Kennedy, the man brought in to restore the West Course as a suitable venue for a championship of this stature. At the start of the decade there were mutterings that the layout was not up to staging the European tour's flagship event, even though the place is home to the tour's administrators.

A new irrigation system helped and now Kennedy has re-established rough that is lush enough to be a genuine penalty. For this championship, both the 11th and 12th tees have been extended so the course now measures 7,006 yards. "The West Course is already a difficult test and we are hoping to keep it that way despite the challenges coming from modern equipment," Kennedy said.

Part of the charm of the layout is the requirement for a wide variety of shotmaking. "That's why you have 14 clubs in the bag," Ian Woosnam said. "This course fetches out all of them." The defending champion was another to struggle to make the cut and three birdies in the last seven holes, saw him safely to one under. Like Seve Ballesteros, Jose Maria Olazabal and Sandy Lyle, Woosie had to birdie the last to make sure.

Coltart's round had similarities with Montgomerie's, not least being four under for the last three holes. He three-putted the first for the second day running and was only clear of the danger of missing the cut when he birdied four holes out of six from the sixth. "I'm chuffed to bits," Coltart said. "In Britain, you can try too hard to do even better in front of your home crowd."

Lonard holed his 15-foot eagle putt on the final green to add to his six birdies. A victim of a mosquito bite, which left him suffering from Ross River Fever, Lonard made a full recovery to return to tournament golf but has been left with a series of eye problems. A couple of years ago he had the sight of a 60-year-old with no depth perception.

The hard contact lenses he was prescribed then led to conjunctivitis and only last weekend, after visiting a Harley Street specialist, Lonard received a new pair which seem to have done the trick. His only precaution is having to wear sunglasses on one of the British summer's duller days.