World matchplay championship: Somewhere on the road to Ireland Ian Woosnam will be smiling - or possibly crying - after a long day's golf on a sodden course which saw Colin Montgomerie, Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson, three members of his Europe squad for next week's Ryder Cup, progress yesterday into the later stages of the World Match Play Championship at Wentworth. The captain's men are clearly in form.
That is the good news. The bad news for Woosnam is that all three face another day of playing up to 36 holes; a breeze for fit young turks like Casey and Karlsson, perhaps, but possibly not for Montgomerie, who at 43 is not only oldest member of the European team but also, as one unkind soul put it yesterday, rather old to be "a man about town" - a reference to his recent emergence as a regular on the newspaper gossip pages.
"Yeah, my boring life as a man about town," Montgomerie laughed after seeing off Michael Campbell. "Trust me I will go home tonight, hopefully get a massage. Then I'll get my usual Chinese takeaway and go to sleep. Alone." As for the prospect of playing another 144 holes should he make Sunday's final: "I'd take another 144 holes if it meant winning the tournament."
No doubt, but first he will need to overcome Paul Casey, who followed an impressive first-round victory over Retief Goosen, with a decisive defeat of Mike Weir. The Canadian injured himself halfway through the afternoon round but in truth he was a beaten man before that.
It has taken a long time for Casey's youthful promise to flower but victory here on Sunday would see him edge closer to his goal of overhauling David Howell at the head of the European Tour order of merit.
While Casey saw off the limping Weir on the 15th green, Montgomerie was engaged in a mini-epic against the defending champion Michael Campbell - a contest that had everything; birdies, bogies, pars, Monty tripping over a fairway rope.
It even had the New Zealander putting out of a bunker on the 14th hole during the afternoon round - a bizarre decision which earned him full marks for creativity but nothing in terms of the match. He lost the hole, and with it the momentum in a wildly fluctuating match that seemed to be once again swinging in his favour.
That the match lasted so long was a tribute to Montgomerie's spirit in coming from four down after the day's first six holes. A 15-foot birdie putt won him a hole back and from there it was a question of chipping his way back to parity. He got there thanks to a run of three birdies to the 16th hole. "Going in for lunch at level, it felt like I was one up," he said.
Not quite, but Monty had earned the psychological edge and was never down in the afternoon. Campbell briefly revived, pulling back a two-hole deficit on the 13th, but then came his escapade in the bunker.
Fittingly, the match made it all the way to the 36th, where both players found the same greenside bunker in two. Campbell played first and hit an awful shot, leaving his ball in the bunker. The Scot then feathered his ball to 10 feet and made his winning birdie putt.
The other semi-final will feature Karlsson, who defeated Angel Cabrera 4 and 3, and Sean Micheel, who again produced the brilliant brand of golf that had seen off Tiger Woods the previous day - at least he did for 25 holes, by which time he was seven up on Luke Donald.
He then lost four of the next eight holes but the American rediscovered his touch on the 16th, rolling in a 10-foot putt to secure the 4 and 2 victory. For which Ian Woosnam might possibly have been very grateful.
Guardian Service
