Monty Leads The Open

They say that there are not too many fairy tales in sport. If Colin Montgomerie was to win the U.S Open this year his performance would certainly qualify as a bona fide sporting fairytale and the flamboyant Scot would finally lose the tag as "one of the greatest golfers never to win a major". Montgomerie carded a one under par 69 and currently leads by 1 shot from a number of players at even par including Phil Mickelson, David Howell and Jim Furyk.

To be fair, Monty has been close to major success before, desperately close in fact. In 1994 and 1997 Montgomerie finished runner up at this event. Last year Monty finished second to Tiger at the British Open. At 42, many critics believe that Montgomerie's chance to win a major had passed him by. A relaxed Mongomerie is not talking up his chances of victory at all and was quoted as saying "it's only one round. My God, we've only walked seven miles and we've got 21 to walk yet. There's a long way to go". With his personal problems behind him, Montgomerie has looked like his old self over the past couple of seasons.

Tiger Wood's return to competitive golf was not what he would have been hoping for. Woods finds himself 7 shots off the lead firing a 7 over the card 76. Tiger missed numerous fairways and with the thick rough at Winged Foot devouring his ball, his score could have been much worse! Tiger will find it difficult just to make the cut. Most of the bookmakers have Tiger as the favorite, which is hard to fathom even though he is the greatest golfer the world has ever seen, but give me a 7 shot lead and I reckon I could take on Tiger!

Phil Mickelson (70) and Vijay Singh (71) seem the most likely challenges to Montgomerie. Both players are in great form and are close to the lead, but are short with the bookies.

We believe the punting value is with a couple of Australians, Adam Scott and Stuart Appleby, who both look like they are "overs" with the bookmakers (both are 3 off the lead). Scott in particular has had a great season and is leading the PGA tour averages at the moment. Scott is currently around 25-30/1 with the bookmakers and Allenby is 50/1. Montgomerie is also great value at around 20/1 and he is a proven performer in big events. This might just be his year and he is in the lead after all.

Good Luck!

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