Montgomerie to make Open bid on Scots course

COLIN Montgomerie will be among the players taking part in the Local Final Qualifying in East Lothian for next month’s Open Championship at Muirfield.

The eight-times European No 1, who turns 50 on Sunday, had originally been due to line up in Monday’s European International Final Qualifier at Sunningdale, but he has now entered the LFQ events instead, due to the fact he’s flying out to America that day ahead of his over-50s debut in next week’s Senior Players Championship at Fox Chapel in Pittsburgh.

“That will be exciting, but flying out to the States on 
Monday means I will miss Monday’s Open qualifier at Sunningdale,” said Montgomerie, who made 20 consecutive appearances in the world’s oldest major until missing out for the last two years.

“So I’ve entered the Local Final Qualifying instead, which is up around North Berwick, Gullane and Musselburgh, and I’ll try to get in that way.”

Dunbar is the other course staging LFQ on Tuesday, 2 July, and Montgomerie’s presence at one of the four venues will 
certainly create added interest in the draw.

It won’t be finalised until after Monday’s round of Regional Qualifiers, one of which is taking place at Bruntsfield Links.