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Montgomerie maintains two shot lead

Colin Montgomerie shot 69 Friday to maintain his lead through two rounds of the Irish Open at Fota Island. The 38-year-old Scot posted a 36-hole total of 10-under-par 132 to leave him two shots ahead of England's Anthony Wall heading into the weekend.

Wall carded his second straight 67 to get to eight-under par, while his compatriot Barry Lane and Frenchman Thomas Levet each had 67s to join Thomas Bjorn (69) of Denmark and Sweden's Fredrik Henge (70) in third place at minus- seven.

Montgomerie, ahead by two after a course-record 63 over the opening 18, started on the 10th and suffered a bogey at the 12th after driving into water. He dropped another shot due to a three-putt at 16 to slip to six-under, two shots behind Bjorn, who at the time was eight-under for the tournament through 10 holes.

With another birdie Bjorn looked on his way to the second-round lead but stumbled home with bogeys on two of the last three holes.

"I played alright but my poor shots were very poor indeed," said Bjorn, a winner in March at the Dubai Desert Classic. "Things just didn’t happen for me but I think I deserved a bit better than I shot."

Meanwhile, Montgomerie birdied the 18th to climb to seven-under, then added successive birdies at the fourth, fifth and sixth to regain the lead.

"In a lot of ways that was a better round than yesterday’s because of the way I started," said Montgomerie, currently 41st in the Order of Merit and still in search of his first victory of 2001. "I think after dropping back to six- under and actually losing the lead for a while it was important that I didn’t panic and concentrated on what I was doing.

"It is difficult to go out in difficult blustery conditions after a 63 and expect to do the same again. Anything under 70 today was a good score and so to come back from being two-over and recover with four birdies was a good effort."

Montgomerie won the Irish Open in 1996 and '97 at Druids Glen.

Wall collected three birdies against no bogeys through 10 holes only to give a shot back at the 15th, where his muddy approach shot landed short of the green. He erased the mistake with a 12-foot birdie at the 16th before chipping to a foot for a closing four at the par-five home hole.

Just two back of Monty after one round, Henge pulled to within one stroke of the Scot's lead with his fourth birdie of the day at the 14th. However, back- to-back bogeys at 15 and 16 knocked the Swede back in his quest for his maiden European Tour victory. Ireland's Eamonn Darcy, who shared second place with Henge after a 65 on Thursday, struggled to shoot a 75 Friday that included four bogeys and a double. He is eight shots off the pace at two-under par.

A total of 70 players made the cut, which fell at even-par 142. Among the survivors is defending champion Patrik Sjoland, who shot 73-68 for a share of 42nd place at minus-one.

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