Colin Montgomerie clinches title on 72nd hole

Colin Montgomerie came from five strokes behind to win the Dunhill Links Championship on Sunday by a stroke, his first victory in 19 months.

Montgomerie's one-under-par 71 in an error-strewn final round, for a nine-under-par 279 total, left him a shot better than overnight leader Kenneth Ferrie, who crashed to a 77.

An $800,000 first prize took Montgomerie within $200,000 of Europe's money list leader, U.S. Open champion Michael Campbell, as the Scot continues his quest for an eighth order of merit.

The 662,415 points for his first win since last year's Singapore Masters also took the 42-year-old to the top of Europe's Ryder Cup table.

"This was a long time coming and you don't know if the next win's going to come," said a smiling Montgomerie.

"I was looking forward to coming back here after the (British) Open and it's good to come out on top this time."

But it was as much a story of Ferrie's collapse as Montgomerie's determination to find victory at the course where he finished second to Tiger Woods in the July British Open.

Ferrie, five strokes ahead of Montgomerie and the field overnight, had a double-bogey and five three-putts in his round, including three-putting the last to miss the chance of a playoff.

Montgomerie himself had a double-bogey and three three-putts on the back nine as the wind got up again, and rarely showed the sort of form that earned him a 65 at the same Old Course two days earlier.

However, the Scot's blemish-free front nine was certainly composed. He reeled off three birdies, compared to playing partner Ferrie's two-over-par return for the stretch, to move into a share of the lead.

Successive three-putts on the 11th and 12th, though, left Montgomerie three behind but the pair were level again after he holed a steepling 50-foot birdie putt on 15 while Ferrie three-putted for a bogey.

Ferrie's woeful putting finally caused him to cave in.

Both players hit well wide of the 18th green but Montgomerie's astute roll to within four feet for birdie while his opponent came up 12 feet short to three-putt yet again for a par decided the tournament.

A 29th European Tour title provided great relief for Montgomerie after two years in the wilderness when he dropped to 82nd in the world rankings and went through a painful public divorce.

"I said my next win would be my most important and this is it," said Montgomerie, who will move back into the world's top 20 on Monday after a gap of two and a half years, and six seasons since he won his seventh successive order of merit.

"But it wasn't easy. He (Ferrie) gifted me a couple of holes and I gifted him a couple and we were making a bit of a mess of it.

"My 50-foot putt on the 15th was massive."

A dejected Ferrie said: "To have been five in front and then Colin just to shoot 71 to win is pretty poor.

"Colin did play pretty poor, too, but I just needed to shoot 75 to win and to not do that after playing well all week is very disappointing.

"All the little breaks I had been getting seemed to go against me."

Four players shared third place a further stroke back, Swedes Henrik Stenson (73) and Robert Karlsson (68), Denmark's Anders Hansen (69) and Irishman Padraig Harrington (70).

Stenson and stockbroker Rurik Gobel won the event's pro-am section by three strokes.

279 Colin Montgomerie 70 65 73 71 (£449,741)

280 Kenneth Ferrie 68 68 67 77 (£299,825)

281 Robert Karlsson (Swe) 70 74 69 68, Anders Hansen (Den) 69 71 72 69, Padraig Harrington 70 70 71 70, Henrik Stenson (Swe) 69 74 65 73 (£128,176 each)

282 Stephen Gallacher 74 73 67 68, Titch Moore (Rsa) 72 68 73 69, Darren Clarke 68 75 69 70, Lee Westwood 71 71 69 71, Pierre Fulke (Swe) 71 66 72 73, Ricardo Gonzalez (Arg) 69 68 71 74 (£59,815 each)

283 Maarten Lafeber (Ned) 72 70 73 68, Miles Tunnicliff 71 71 72 69, Soren Kjeldsen (Den) 70 72 69 72

284 Simon Khan 69 72 74 69, Raymond Russell 73 70 72 69, Paul Broadhurst 70 71 73 70

285 David Carter 72 71 71 71, Gary Orr 72 71 70 72, Nick O'Hern (Aus) 68 75 70 72, Carlos Rodiles (Spa) 70 73 69 73

286 Johan Axgren (Swe) 73 70 72 71, Peter Hanson (Swe) 73 71 71 71, Bradley Dredge 68 73 73 72, Peter Gustafsson (Swe) 73 68 71 74, Paul Casey 68 70 72 76

287 Sam Little 73 71 71 72, Peter Hedblom (Swe) 70 69 76 72, Brian Davis 68 71 77 71, Jean Van de Velde (Fra) 72 74 70 71, Rich Beem (USA) 67 73 75 72, Andrew Marshall 70 70 74 73, Mark Foster 70 70 73 74, Scott Drummond 71 72 69 75, Martin Doyle (Aus) 73 72 66 76

288 Christian Cevaer (Fra) 69 74 72 73, Brett Rumford (Aus) 68 70 78 72, David Howell 67 74 76 71, Anthony Wall 69 72 73 74

289 Warren Abery (Rsa) 69 71 75 74, Mark Murless (Rsa) 71 76 69 73, Richard Sterne (Rsa) 74 71 71 73, Barry Lane 72 70 74 73, Niclas Fasth (Swe) 70 72 75 72, Paul McGinley 74 71 72 72, Roger Chapman 71 72 71 75, Alessandro Tadini (Ita) 67 72 73 77

290 Nick Dougherty 68 74 73 75, Simon Dyson 69 73 73 75, Darren Fichardt (Rsa) 71 73 72 74

291 Alastair Forsyth 73 74 68 76, Ignacio Garrido (Spa) 74 66 75 76, Terry Pilkadaris (Aus) 74 65 76 76, Ian Poulter 71 73 72 75, Mark Roe 70 74 72 75, David Park 70 72 74 75, Andrew Coltart 70 76 71 74, Phillip Archer 70 73 71 77, Richard Green (Aus) 70 71 70 80

293 Joakim Backstrom (Swe) 70 75 71 77, Markus Brier (Aut) 72 70 75 76

294 Jose Manuel Lara (Spa) 70 70 77 77, James Kingston (USA) 70 75 70 79

300 Eduardo Romero (Arg) 69 74 74 83

Leading teams:

259 Henrik Stenson and Rurik Gobel 67 64 62 66

262 Warren Abery and Chad Morse 63 65 70 64, Rich Beem and John Dyson 62 65 70 65, Kenneth Ferrie and Jonathan Edwards 64 65 60 73

Email this page to a friend | Return to top of page