Despite a dreaded early morning wake up call, Colin Montgomerie recorded a second successive 67 to take a two shot lead into the third round of the Volvo Scandinavian Masters.
After his round, Montgomerie admitted that he was perhaps not the best early riser, but also conceded that the superb condition of the morning greens had helped his pursuit of a fourth victory on the 1999 European Tour. Using just 26 putts for the second day in a row, Montgomerie’s round contained four birdies, an eagle and just one dropped shot at the eighteenth hole, his ninth.
The eighteenth also caused some problems for second placed Australian, Geoff Ogilvy, though he escaped with a par to cap a magnificent course record round of 62 to lie on 8 under. The big hitting Australian currently tops the AXA Performance Data driving distance category with an average of 292 yards for the season and puts down his length off the tee to playing with boys a lot older than himself when he grew up. “I learned to hit it hard as youngster” explained Ogilvy, a sentiment shared by Emanuele Canonica, renowned as the Tour’s longest driver, who would have broken the course record with a 64 were it not for Ogilvy.
The chasing pack on seven under include local hero Jesper Parnevik, once again well placed to make his annual charge for the Scandinavian Masters. Italian Open Champion Dean Robertson, former Ryder Cup player Paul Broadhurst and New Zealand’s Michael Campbell, who is consistently showing signs of a return to the form which earned him third place in the 1995 Open Championship, are joined by Denmark’s Steen Tinning, who will be hoping that his army of fans will make the trip across the Oeresund to support him at the weekend.
