Colin Montgomerie fails to qualify for the US Open at Congressional
Leading English golfer Colin Montgomerie, after a encouraging finish in last week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, was hoping to break into the US Open field next month. Qualifying via the Monday qualifiers, he ended up carding one-over for 145 and failed
to qualify for the same. Montgomerie had finished top ten after almost three years of lopsided performances and was hoping to return to the Congressional once again.
The qualifier was staged at Walton Heath Old and New, England and a long list of aspirants contended to move on top of the leaderboard at the 36-hole US Open qualifying round. Montgomerie, former Ryders Cup captain for Europe, was coming out of a strong
finish in the BMW PGA Championship when he closed the tournament for the seventh place, his best individual finish since 2008 Accenture Match Play Championship where he finished 16th.
The 47-year-old Montgomerie is probably the only successful player in European golf who has not won a major in his life. Turning professional in 1988, he went over to claim his first professional victory on European Tour at the 1989 Portuguese Open by a
staggering eight shots.
In his stellar career, Montgomerie has won 40 professional events, 31 of them coming on the European Tour. He came close to lifting his first major title in 1997 but was taken over by the South African Ernie Els and had to settle for the second spot.
The Englishman was also a runner-up in 1995 PGA Championship as well as the 2005 Open Championship. Already in his late 40’s, this probably was Montgomerie’s last attempt to participate in a major.
Top 50 players on the Official World Golf Rankings (OWGR) will automatically qualify for the second major of the season while the rest of the field will be selected through the qualifying rounds and sponsor’s recommendations. Eleven players at the qualifiers
made it to the US open and will receive their invitations by the start of next week.
The Top 50 players from the OWGR will be selected one week before the event and will be sent the invitations accordingly. Many of the top ranking players who are a few points short on the list will try their luck to barge into the Top 50 in this week’s tournaments.
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