Downhill for MontyThings were bad for Colin Montgomerie before he even got to hit a ball in yesterday's first round, and he wasn't to know they would shortly get much, much worse.
On the first tee, he had a minor contretemps with a photographer - not for the first time this year - whom he deemed to be standing too close to him as he prepared to strike his opening tee-shot . . . and that was about as good as it got.
By the time he got to hit his drive, Monty hadn't cooled down sufficiently and the ball veered like an out-of-control exocet into the rough.
Result? The Scot made bogey, the first of 12 in an undistinguished, birdie-free round of 82.
On his exit from the recorder's room, Montgomerie was not in the mood for idle chat. "I didn't make a double bogey, just made 12 bogeys . . . never mind, the six pars were good. Never mind, I'll try again tomorrow. Thanks." And, with that, he was gone.
Yesterday's 82 was the stuff of nightmares, as he played the sort of golf weekend hackers are only too familiar with. On the fourth, he found two bunkers; on the next, he hit a tree, and, on the 13th, his approach to the green was so far amiss that the ball landed on the towel of a woman sitting outside the ropes.
In all, he found only seven of 14 fairways and incurred 36 putts.
It was an extension of a miserable time in the US this season, which has seen the former seven-time European Tour number one suffer one embarrassment after another.
Having decided to play more on the US Tour in the early part of the season, he promptly missed six cuts in his first seven strokeplay tournaments.
For a player who had travelled to Oak Hill believing his game was back, after his runner-up finish to Ian Poulter in the Nordic Open in Denmark, Montgomerie crash-landed to the worst round of his career in the United States, but not his worst round in a major.
In the third round of last year's British Open at Muirfield he signed for an 84. Unlike then, however, there was no tempest around Rochester yesterday. The only dark clouds were those around Monty's head.
Ace for Allenby
Australian Robert Allenby found the best way to conquer the 226-yard par-three 11th hole yesterday - he took only one shot.
His four-iron tee-shot plonked sweetly into the hole for the first hole-in-one of the championship and the 32nd ace in the event since 1970.
The last player to have a hole-in-one in the championship and go on to win the title was David Toms, in the 2001 Championship at Atlanta Athletic Club.
Darren Clarke, meanwhile, could have done with Allenby's stroke of luck on that 11th hole: the Ulsterman, who started his round on the 10th, followed-up his opening-hole double bogey with a horrendous triple bogey.
How was that for a birthday present? Clarke "celebrated" his 35th yesterday.
Curtis in bogeys
One of the traditions of the US PGA is that the three champions of the other three majors of that year are paired together for the opening two rounds . . .
But it didn't prove to be an entirely satisfactory day for all three. Mike Weir, the US Masters champion, fared best with an opening 68, but Jim Furyk, the US Open champion, could only manage a 72 while British Open champion Ben Curtis bogeyed his first four holes on the way to a 75.
Early First Round Scores
(Par 70, US unless stated)
66 (4 under)
Phil Mickelson, Rod Pampling (Australia)
68 (2 under)
Mike Weir (Can)
69 (1 under)
Tim Herron, Shaun Micheel, Kevin Sutherland
70 (level)
Robert Allenby (Australia), Todd Hamilton, Loren Roberts, Duffy Waldorf, Robert Gamez, Charles Howell
71 (1 over)
Angel Cabrera (Argentina), Joe Durant, Geoff Ogilvy (Australia), Toshimitsu Izawa (Japan)
72 (2 over)
Woody Austin, Jim Furyk, Phil Tataurangi (New Zealand), Rory Sabbatini (South Africa), Robert Karlsson (Sweden), Gene Sauers
73 (3 over)
Paul Azinger, Briny Baird, Alastair Forsyth (Britain), Carlos Franco (Paraguay), Peter Jacobsen, Chris Riley, Lee Westwood (Britain), Luke Donald (Britain), Chip Sullivan
74 (4 over)
Stuart Appleby (Australia), KJ Choi (South Korea), Brian Gay, Scott McCarron, Jose Maria Olazabal (Spain), Carl Pettersson (Sweden), Tiger Woods, Don Berry
75 (5 over)
Ben Curtis, Ignacio Garrido (Spain), Shingo Katayama (Japan), Bernhard Langer (Germany), Kenny Perry, Jeff Sluman, Andre Stolz (Australia), Tim Thelen, David Toms
76 (6 over)
John Daly, Mathias Gronberg (Sweden), Fredrik Jacobson (Sweden), Kirk Triplett, Shingo Katayama (Japan), Jerry Kelly, Cary Sciorra
77 (7 over)
Ricardo Gonzalez (Argentina), Justin Rose (Britain), Phillip Price (Britain), Steve Schneiter, Thomas Bjorn (Denmark), John Huston
78 (8 over)
Anders Hansen (Denmark), Bob Tway, Sean Farren, Jeffrey Lankford, Phillip Price (Britain)
79 (9 over)
Paul Casey (Britain), Dino Lucchesi, Craig Parry (Australia), Stewart Cink, Wayne DeFrancesco
80 (10 over)
Michael Combs
81 (11 over)
John Rollins
82 (12 over)
Rich Beem, Brad Faxon, Colin Montgomerie (Britain), Ron A Philo jnr
84 (14 over)
Dave Spengler
86 (16 over)
John Guyton
87 (17 over)
John Jacobs
