| Cologne,
Germany 24th September 1998 -
U.S. PGA champion Vijay Singh muscled in on Europe's order of merit race when
he grabbed a share of a three-way tie for the first round lead in the Linde German
Masters on Thursday. Five-times
European number one Colin Montgomerie had set a seven-under-par 65 target for
rankings leader Lee Westwood to shoot at in the afternoon. While
the young Englishman responded with a 66, his best round since winning the Loch
Lomond event just before the Open Championship in July, Singh went one better
to match Montgomerie's score. Another
player also crashed the rankings party. Englishman Van Phillips, who has never
won on tour, made it a three-way tie for the lead during the afternoon. The
trio are a stroke ahead of Westwood, Sweden's Jarmo Sandelin, joint second in
last week's Lancome Trophy, European Masters winner Sven Struever of Germany and
two more Englishmen, Richard Boxall and Ian Garbutt. Singh,
though, seems like Montgomerie's chief danger after a relaxing week off. The 35-year-old
Fijian hopes his early salvo will be a prelude to a successful defence of his
World Matchplay title in England next month. He
chased Montgomerie with an opening run of five birdies in seven holes to go out
in 31 shots and caught the Scot with two more birdies coming home. "It's
nice to be back in Europe again," said Singh, who moved to the U.S. Tour
after the 1995 season. "I
hope I'll still be playing well in Europe next month when the Matchplay comes
round. "My
start obviously put me in great heart. I felt relaxed after a week off. Last week
the most strenuous thing I did was to answer some of my mail and faxes of congratulation
for the PGA win that my wife sorted out from boxes and boxes of them." Montgomerie
is chasing his second title in three weeks to go back to the top of Europe's rankings
in his for a sixth successive order of merit title. The
35-year-old Scot gave his putting 'nine out of 10' to fashion the early lead but
only 'sevenish' for his occasionally wayward driving and iron play. Westwood
is happy that his all-round game is back after collecting seven birdies, four
to start with and three in four holes in the middle of his back nine. "I
saw Monty's score before I went out and played my best golf for two months. I've
been chopping it since the Dutch Open and last week my bad back returned briefly
on Sunday night," Westwood said. "So
for once I took two days off before coming out for another tournament and cancelled
a pro-am. The rest did me good because I found the face of the club again."
Westwood's nearest
challenger for top place is Northern Ireland's Darren Clarke, but a cold putter
left him four shots off the pace. Two
American visitors to Cologne had differing fortunes. Brad Faxon carded a 68 but
Scott Hoch, playing alongside Montgomerie after their memorable half in the Ryder
Cup last year which earned Europe victory, slipped to a 74. Nick
Faldo recovered from a double-bogey on the ninth for a 71 but his young compatriot
Justin Rose is in danger of missing seven cuts out of seven since turning pro
after his opening round of 76. | 
