Foster leads as Montgomerie withdraws

Briton Colin Montgomerie's hopes of playing in next week's U.S. PGA Championship could have been dashed by an injury that threw the Johnnie Walker Championship into disarray on Thursday.

Tournament chairman Montgomerie had to pull out with bruised fingers after playing only 13 holes of the first round and he now faces an anxious few days to see if he will be fit for Baltusrol next week.

Montgomerie, who has joined up with the sponsors and Gleneagles to promote the event, had said the previous day his role was "to try to build this championship into one of the premier events on the European Tour, if not the premier event".

Now the 42-year-old Scot will not even be handing out the prizes on Sunday and his chances of playing next week's final major could have disappeared.

The seven-time European Tour order of merit winner would have returned to the top of the money list if he had either won or finished runner-up at Gleneagles.

Montgomerie's order of merit hopes were ended by bruised fingers in his right hand while playing a driver from the fairway of the 18th, his ninth hole, and he pulled out after the fourth when he was five-over-par.

"I managed to slip on the second shot to the last with a driver and only hit it about 30 yards," said Montgomerie.

"My grip slipped and it felt a bit odd. Then I went into the rough on the right hand side on the 18th and it went altogether.

"All three middle fingers have bruised and swollen up.

"I couldn't feel the club, I had no feel at all. You can't compete when you are not physically fit."

He will now consult the specialist who treated his bruised left palm, following his retirement from the 2003 British Open after a few holes.

"We will have X-rays. Hopefully it's just heavily bruised," he added.

"Hopefully I can rest up over the next three or four days and go to America on schedule. If not, I won't."

World number 24 Montgomerie's withdrawal weakened an already understrength field at Gleneagles.

The highest world ranked player in the tournament is now 50th-ranked Australian lefthander Richard Green, who shot 77 and trails the leader, Britain's Mark Foster, by nine strokes.

Foster, winner of the 2003 Dunhill Championship after a six-man playoff in South Africa, shot a 68 to lead the field by two strokes.

With his two-year tour exemption running out at the end of this season, Foster needs a good result to move up from his current 122nd placing on the European money-list.

The 30-year-old leader is trying to find his winning form of two years ago by not being so hard on himself when he plays bad shots.

He played alongside Italy's Alessandro Tadini, whose Argentine caddie Nestor Siles was killed in a car crash in Scotland on Monday.

"It was very difficult for Alessandro, naturally he was quiet," said Foster.

"We called his caddie The Eagle, he was a great guy, a character, he will be missed and it will be tough for Alessandro for a while."

A shocked Tadini had said earlier in the week on hearing the news: "I'm devastated, he was not only a caddie but a friend."

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