Just as he had feared, Colin Montgomerie made one vital error to dent his chances of qualifying for next week's Players' Championship during yesterday's opening round of the the Caltex Masters.
Montgomerie bogeyed the final hole to card a one-under-par 71 at Laguna National to lie four shots off the clubhouse leaders in Singapore.
Australia's Peter Fowler and France's Thomas Levet set the clubhouse target at five under after early rounds of 67, before an afternoon thunderstorm forced play to be suspended for two-and-a-half hours.
New Zealand's Eddie Lee was eight under par with one hole to play and among 57 players unable to finish their rounds.
Montgomerie began the €725,000 event ranked 51st in the world and needing to move into the top 50 to book his place at a tournament often labelled "the fifth Major". But that was likely to require his best performance of a season in which he has yet to find top form, joint 12th in his last outing in Dubai the best result from four strokeplay events.
And the 40-year-old candidly admitted before play began he was now frequently making the kind of errors which never occurred when he was European number one for seven years in a row in the 1990s.
"Little things seem to be creeping in now that weren't there before and I've got to nullify them and we can start to win again," Montgomerie had said in a remarkable, 2,200-word interview on Wednesday.
"All I was doing when I was number one was doing things properly. I would birdie the odd par five, I wasn't making any mistakes, I wasn't three-putting."
The Scot avoided three-putting yesterday but bogeyed the last after a poor drive and worse bunker shot, and his post-round interview lasted a mere 36 words.
"I'm just disappointed to bogey the last," said Montgomerie, whose last two victories have come in Asia: the TCL Classic and Macau Open in China in 2002 and 2003 respectively. "It was a simple bunker shot and a poor bunker shot. I made one mistake all day, I do that too often these days and don't make enough birdies."
Ireland's Peter Lawrie, European Tour rookie of the year in 2003, was among an eight-strong group on four under, alongside South African James Kingston, who was seven under with two to play but found water on his penultimate hole and ran up a triple bogey six.
Paul McGinley finished one under par after a round of 71, while Damien McGrane's round was interrupted after nine holes, at which point he was two under.
Lawrie would have shared the clubhouse lead but lipped out from five feet for birdie on the last. But was satisfied with his score after struggling with jet-lag.
"The putt horse-shoed on the last but I would take four 68s this week," said the 29-year-old Dubliner. "I didn't sleep too well last night and I feel tired. I was in bed early but I could have run a marathon at 1 am I was so wide awake. I was watching the clock all night until getting up at 5.30am.
"I've played a lot of golf lately (this is his eighth event of the year), but I have a week off after this before playing in Portugal and two more weeks off after that. I need to recharge the batteries for the big events coming up."
Levet tried his luck on the US Tour last season after coming to prominence with his play-off defeat in the 2002 British Open to Ernie Els, but struggled to make an impression and returned to Europe.
He has already enjoyed two third place finishes this season, and said: "Basically my game is in very good shape. I missed only two greens all day and my putting was much more solid than of late. I have been playing better and better and if I can stay patient I hope to get the rewards. My big goal is the Ryder Cup."
