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| August 6, 2005 | Saturday | Jumadi-us-Sani 29, 1426 |
Golf: Foster makes most of Monty misery
GLENEAGLES (Scotland), Aug 5: Colin Montgomerie’s hopes of recapturing the European number one spot were dashed on Thursday when he was forced to retire from the EPGA tournament after damaging his fingers. The Scotsman, playing for the first time since finishing second to Tiger Woods in the Open at St Andrews last month, bruised the fingers of his right hand when playing his second shot to the 18th, his ninth of the first round.
The withdrawal of the 42-year-old pre-tournament favourite overshadowed the first round which saw England’s Mark Foster take the lead with a four-under-par 68. Montgomerie, who will see a hand specialist in London, battled on for another four holes but was unable to grip the club and felt he had no option but to retire and seek treatment in the hope of being fit for next weeks US PGA Championship.
Australian Richard Green was left as the highest-ranked player - he is 50th in the world - but an opening 77 leaves him in danger of bowing out at halfway.
Paul Casey, Howell’s partner in the win over the Americans last September, showed a semblance of real form at long last.
After six successive missed cuts, Casey, a winner on the course four years ago, returned a 71. Foster, only 122nd on the order of merit and without a top-10 finish all year, made six birdies and two bogeys.
First round scores
68 Mark Foster
70 Gregory Bourdy, Emanuele Canonica, Nicolas Colsaerts, Bradley Dredge, Ross Drummond, Darren Fichardt, Robert Karlsson, Michael Kirk, Jonathan Lomas David Lynn, Damien McGrane, Mark Roe
71 Richard Bland, Paul Broadhurst, Paul Casey, Roger Chapman, Mattias Eliasson, Ian Garbutt, Simon Khan, Sam Little, Ben Mason, Gary Murphy, Johan Skoeld, Jamie Spence, Simon Wakefield, Steve Webster.
TORONTO: The opening round of golf’s International in Castle Rock, Colorado, was postponed on Thursday due to rain.
Poor weather had set in early in the morning and failed to let up, finally forcing officials to reschedule first round action for Friday at the Castle Rock Golf Club. The delay is a setback for world number four Phil Mickelson who is using the $5 million tournament as a final tune-up before heading to Baltusrol, New Jersey next week for the U.S. PGA championship.
The world’s top two, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh, are avoiding the event having played their only competitive tune-up ahead of the year’s final major a week earlier at the Buick.—Agencies
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