Golf: More woe for Montgomerie

COLIN MONTGOMERIE admitted he had lost all confidence after shooting a level par 72 in the first round of the BMW International Open in Munich.

Level par may sound reasonable but it left a depressed Montgomerie eight shots behind the leader, Thomas Bjorn, and in great danger of missing the half-way cut for the third time in five tournaments.

Montgomerie, Europe's No 1 golfer for the past five years, is currently going through the worst slump of his professional career and said after his four-birdie, four-bogey round: "I'm not confident in anything I'm doing. I might miss the cut again and that would be the second week running. I must try to avoid that."

The burly Scot's nightmare began when he missed the cut at the Open championship at Royal Birkdale six weeks ago and since then he has finished joint 16th in the Scandinavian Masters, joint 44th in the USPGA Championship and last week missed the cut at the European Open in Dublin.

A grim-faced Montgomerie three-putted both the 16th and 17th holes yesterday and those two dropped shots might prove fatal today. Last year the cut in this event was made at five under par, which means that the Scot might need to shoot 67 or better in his second round to qualify for the last two rounds.

In contrast to Montgomerie, Bjorn, a member of Europe's winning Ryder Cup team last year, is full of confidence. The 27-year-old Dane has already won two European Tour events this year, the Heineken Classic in Australia in February and the Spanish Open in April.

Yesterday he dropped a shot at the second hole but then bounced back so well that he had nine birdies in his last 16 holes. Next week, at the Canon European Masters in Switzerland, the Ryder Cup points table begins for the 1999 match in America, but Bjorn was not worried that he might be peaking one week early. "There are many big tournaments to come before the Ryder Cup next year," he said, "and I know that if I keep playing the way I am I shall make the team again".

At the moment his target is to finish top of the Order of Merit this year. He is currently fourth, some pounds 200,000 behind Lee Westwood, but if he were to win the first prize of pounds 141,660 this week he would close the gap considerably.

Scores, Digest, page 23