Montgomerie loses form and temper

Colin Montgomerie today dismissed his chances of winning the Open after a second round 76 left him trailing in the wake of Tiger Woods and Greg Norman.

"This has gone now," said a gloomy Montgomerie after failing to capitalise on much calmer conditions at Carnoustie.

While world number one Woods and twice winner Norman improved to one over par, Montgomerie fell back to the eight over total of 150 on another day of bitter disappointment - and bad temper - at the championship.

Europe's number one, who has missed the cut in five of the last seven Opens and was at least on course to improve that dismal record, staged a running battle with cameramen, photographers, marshals and spectators.

A three-putt bogey on the first set the tone for Montgomerie's miserable round and it was only two holes later that a fan with a camera was told by the Scot to put it away.

On the fourth he felt the need to speak to a whole camera crew.

"You need a break, we need a break - go away and have a coffee," he said. "We're under enough pressure without you lot."

Further bogeys at the seventh and short eighth - the first after a bad drive into the rough, the other the result of a tee shot into a bunker - meant an outward 39, and already he was losing touch, as Woods, also round in 74 yesterday, covered the same nine in 34.

Montgomerie did birdie the 10th and 14th, but he also bogeyed the 11th and then had three more in a row from the 15th, his mood darkening all the time.

"I didn't capitalise on my draw," he added. "I was struggling - I didn't play well and got no luck."

Woods started to make his move with a 30-foot birdie putt from just off the back of the first green.

He then holed from 12 feet at the fifth and after three-putting the seventh got the stroke back immediately with a 25-footer on the next.

Norman, the 1986 and 1993 champion who missed the championship last year following shoulder surgery, is now 44, but still believes there are more majors in him.

He opened with only a 76 yesterday, but birdied the fourth and grabbed three more in a row from the 12th.

At one over he and Woods were involved in a five-way tie for the lead as overnight leader and Open debutant Rod Pampling, resumed with a bogey five.

On the same mark were his playing partner Bernhard Langer and American Scott Dunlap.

Nick Faldo's record of never having missed a cut in the Open was almost certainly about to end as he fell away to 14 over with four to play.

For the second day running Faldo, down to 189th in the world rankings, failed to break 40 for the front nine and added further bogeys on the 10th and 11th.

If he does fail to qualify for the final two rounds it would be for the seventh time in the last 11 majors.

World number two David Duval was 12 over after dropping five strokes in the last four holes for a 75 and had to wait to see if he was on the way home too.

A double bogey seven at the sixth, where he was in two bunkers, was repaired by a 20-foot eagle putt at the 14th, but then came the collapse.

His pushed drive found a terrible lie in the rough and even a man of Norman's strength couldn't move the ball more than a couple of inches.

A stunned Norman then hacked out over the other side of the fairway into more rough, eventually finding the fairway with his fourth shot.

That still left him with almost 100 yards to go and he amazingly left it 30 yards short of the putting surface before pitching within three feet of the flag and holing out for a triple bogey seven.

From a share of the lead Norman suddenly found himself three shots behind at three over as Langer birdied the fourth to get to level par.

That was enough for a two-shot lead over the rest of the field as Woods dropped shots at the 11th and 12th and Pampling bogeyed his opening two holes.