Colin Montgomerie breathed a sigh of relief yesterday - and then set his sights on regaining the European number one spot this weekend.
Montgomerie plays in the Victor Chandler British Masters at Woburn starting this morning after being told by specialists he should not need surgery on his back.
"You wonder what they are leading up to, but there was no sting in the tail," said the Scot. "I have to get myself fit, that's all. Otherwise I know my career will be shortened."
Montgomerie has managed back-to-back second places in the last two weeks despite the problem and will top the Order of Merit if he can now go one better.
"It would be a nice feeling to go into the US Open with," he said. "It would show my peers that I am still capable. And if I was to win the Order of Merit this year it would probably mean more than any of the other seven." Montgomerie reigned supreme from 1993 to 1999, but the past two seasons has finished sixth and fifth.
"People probably thought that that's Monty on the way down, but I have never felt that. I always felt the talent was there and I just had to re-ignite it." It has not escaped his notice he is on offer at 50-1 for the US Open.
"I'm no gambler, but I would have expected to be a little bit lower the way I am playing and the way I am putting especially - I'm holing two more putts a round than I used to and that's eight a tournament.
"Somebody is going to have a good week, hole some putts and give Tiger (Woods) a run for it. Hopefully it will be me - there are 10 to 15 names I suppose and it's nice that mine is in there again. It wasn't two months ago."
Osteopath Clive Lathey, who has been involved in sports medicine for many years, and consultant Francis Johnston were the ones to give Montgomerie the all-clear to continue playing and they feel he will never need to be operated on.
Montgomerie commented: "It's a bit of a challenge and I'm going to get my teeth into it. I've been given exercises to do for three hours a day - 90 minutes morning and evening.
"I still came close to not playing this week, but I'm able to stay at home and I love the course. As for long term, I want to keep playing for as long as I am competitive. Hopefully in six years' time I'll still be coming here looking to win."
The door is open to him to go top of the money list because current leading three Retief Goosen, Ernie Els and Jose Maria Olazabal are all absent.
Six other members of September's Ryder Cup team are in the field, though - Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Phillip Price, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn and Lee Westwood, whose first priority is to try to avoid a fourth successive missed cut.
Cup captain and vice-captain Sam Torrance and Ian Woosnam also play, Woosnam a week after crashing to an 84 at the Volvo PGA Championship at Wentworth, the third worst round of his entire career in Europe.
Frenchman Thomas Levet is the defending champion, having beaten Swedes Mathias Gronberg and Robert Karlsson and Swindon's David Howell in a four-man play-off last year.
An extra attraction for fans is a giant screen in the tented village - for the World Cup soccer as well as the golf.
