Golf: Montgomerie 'might never get over US Open'

GLENEAGLES, Scotland - Colin Montgomerie has admitted he might never get over his final hole calamity in the US Open that cost him his best chance yet of winning a major golf championship.

Montgomerie said his double-bogey at Winged Foot on Sunday that left him sharing second place, a stroke adrift of the winner Geoff Ogilvy of Australia, had played on his mind in Thursday's Johnnie Walker Championship first round.

At Gleneagles, Montgomerie bogeyed the last hole for a five-under-par 68 to drift three strokes behind leader Thomas Bjorn of Denmark.

The Scot, 43 on Friday, opened with two birdies, but then a succession of missed putts cost him a place nearer Bjorn.

He said: "I missed a whole bunch of putts. It was quite difficult. Every shot I hit I thought about the last (hole at Winged Foot).

"I won't get it out of my system for a long time. I might never get it out of my system. If I don't win a major, then I won't. I need to win one to get rid of it."

Montgomerie's chance to do that comes next month in the British Open in which he finished second behind Tiger Woods last year.

- REUTERS