Monty cruises to nine shot win

Colin Montgomerie stormed to a nine-shot victory at the Volvo Scandinavian Masters to rattle out a loud warning ahead of next week's USPGA in Illinois.

The Scot clinched his fourth European Tour victory of the season - he had never claimed more than three in a single campaign before - with a three under 69 to finish nine strokes clear of defending champion Jesper Parnevik.

It was the biggest winning margin on the European Tour this year, beating the previous mark - Paul Lawrie won the Qatar Masters by seven shots.

A triumph at the Medinah Club next week would provide immense comfort for Montgomerie, whose Holy Grail is a major title. He was runner-up in the 1995 USPGA after losing a play-off to Steve Elkington.

His massive advantage was never under serious threat today.

Montgomerie's six-shot cushion at the start of the fourth round soon became seven when his playing partner Paul Broadhurst bogeyed the opening hole.

Conditions were in stark contrast to the rest of the week as glorious sunshine was replaced by wind and rain, and scores suffered as a result.

But the hard work had been done over the first three rounds.

Montgomerie did drop a shot at the 476-yard par four third. It was only his fifth bogey of the week and put him back to 16 under.

He had hit the green in two but came up 30 feet short of the flag.

The Scot left his first putt five feet short and missed the one for par. But his lead was still six shots over a chasing pack.

The 36-year-old got that shot back with a birdie four at the fifth, then extended the lead to seven with another at the ninth.

He opened the back nine with six straight pars before a pair of birdie fours at the 16th and 17th took him to 20-under - nine clear of Parnevik who bogeyed the 17th.

The consolation for Parnevik is that he moves a step closer to his target of qualifying automatically for Europe's Ryder Cup team, and now needs a good finish from the USPGA or BMW International.

Montgomerie's triumph here in Sweden is no guarantee he will do the same at the USPGA, however.

Only last month the man who shares the unwanted label with Phil Mickelson as the 'best players never to win a major' claimed victory at Loch Lomond, before falling off the pace in the second round at the Open Championship.

Montgomerie's £166,000 first prize has put him in command in the race to win the Order of Merit for the seventh successive season.

The Scot is now £291,000 ahead of Lee Westwood.

And Although his win in Sweden was big, it did not quite match his previous best winning margin. In 1989 his victory in the Portuguese Open was by 11 shots.

AP