ENGLISH WINNER OF OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP IS OVERDUE

FROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH WEBSITE

By Colin Montgomerie

I have two wishes for Royal Lytham and St Annes. One: Lee Westwood starts off like I did here in 2001. Two: Westwood finishes off like I didn’t in 2001. If he manages to achieve those tasks, England will celebrate its first winner of an Open in England in 42 years
"I don’t believe in the word ‘deserve’ in golf, but let’s just say nobody is due a major in the game as much as Lee. He is approaching 40, though, and time is running out, no matter how fit he is, which Lee is – very.
"But I think he must be in the lead or at least have a share of the lead by the halfway stage. He is a great front-runner; it suits his game. I don’t want to be getting excited in the third round by the fact that ‘Lee’s only three behind’. Shots are hard to pick up in these majors and I want him up there.
TREMENDOUS FIGHT
"I was impressed with the manner in which Lee took his latest disappointment at the US Open. For a start he showed tremendous fight to recover from an opening double-bogey at a merciless course to drag his way into contention.
"And after the final round, when he was left to consider that unlucky break which saw his ball stay up in a tree on the fifth, he was very pragmatic.
"The danger would have been to have adopted a “why me?” mindset. But I caught the same plane home with Lee and he was very philosophical. I just said to him: ‘Keep knocking on the door.’ It is ajar, not open but one day it will open, as long as you keep trying, and when it does it will mean even more than winning when he was 25 years old’.
“OK I’ll just have to try again next time,” he told me. He was merely carrying over his mindset from the week – “I’m going to treat this as I would a normal tournament”.
"He has to do the same at Lytham and, unlike me in 2001, not get too involved in everything. Yes, draw the energy from the crowd, but don’t get caught up in the urgency and expectancy. Just play golf. Find those fairways, make those greens. That is all Lytham is about.
"Tee-to-green, there’s nobody better in the game at the moment, as he continually proves with top threes in the majors despite the short-game being his nemesis. The latter might not matter so much at Lytham as at other venues.
GREENS FLAT, SLOW
"The greens are slow, the greens are flat and I think it takes away the difficulty of putting that we have seen at the Masters and the US Open.
"It’s bound, at the very least, to be breezy and the pins will be located on the edges of the greens so the players will have to cut them in, draw them in. Lee is very good at that. And his focus is excellent, unlike mine was in 2001.
"It was a strange experience for me the last time The Open visited Lytham. It was just at the start of the collapse of my marriage and the general public got hold of it and I received great backing. In fact, apart from Ryder Cups, I have never been so well supported outside Scotland.
"My home life had affected my golf. I’d fallen outside the top 10 and didn’t expect a lot. But with the crowd cheering me on, I set off with a 65.
"At the end of the day I couldn’t believe I was three ahead. Three! Not only is that sort of deficit very rare after the first day of the Open but I was sure the scores would be lower.
"Back then, there was talk that, at under 7,000 yards, Lytham was becoming too short for the modern professional, with their go-further balls and turbocharged drivers. Well, that first day was calm enough and apart from little old me nobody managed better than 68.
"I thought to myself: “Hang about, this could turn out rather well. I’ve obviously underrated this place. Yet that night, I really began to feel the pressure. I don’t know why. Maybe it was all the emotion I was feeling, but it spelt doom for my challenge.
"Even during the second round I was thinking about winning the Open rather than just doing the old thing and concentrating on one shot at a time, staying in the moment blah, blah, blah.
HALFWAY LEADER
"I struggled through on Friday with a one-under 70 and kept the halfway lead. Yet the weekend wasn’t good and as the frustration dug in I inevitably fell away to finish a tie for 13th.
"The stage was left for David Duval to validate his standing. The American was the third successive winner who either was or had been world No 1. There’s something about the place which picks out the very best.
"And talking of the very best, imagine if Tiger Woods wins his first major in four years, there will be a palpable feeling that the window has closed a few notches. Woods in his prime used to knock off two majors a year and I know all about how difficult it was to win one when it felt like only half were up for grabs.

I rate him as joint-favourite with Lee but Woods is a curious one. You have to say he’s back, having won three of his last eight events.
But then he misses the cut at the Greenbrier and you are reminded of his weekend form at both the Masters and the US Open.
Goodness knows what happened at the Olympic Club, when he played dreadfully on the Saturday and Sunday. Maybe the pressure of chasing down Jack Nicklaus’s record major haul of 18 is getting to him. All I do know for certain is that if there are any weaknesses in his psyche then Lytham will expose them.
If it is benign conditions, Woods could easily ‘iron’ his way around, like he did at Hoylake in 2006. Actually I would be very surprised if he didn’t play a conservative game-plan and ensure that he stays out of those bunkers. The traps define Lytham.
SEA HIDDEN FROM VIEW
To be honest, it’s not my favourite venue simply because I like to be able to see the sea from the links, like you can, say, at Turnberry. Because of the railway track and being surrounded by all those houses there isn’t too much of a linksy feel to the place. But in terms of the golf course, hole-for-hole it’s up there with the very best on the roster.
Someone once said that Lytham is not two nines, but a 13 and a five. How right they were. You have to make your score on the first 13 and then hang on for dear life. The last five are so demanding. They are all par fours and require total concentration to negotiate.
"Believe it, the lead could change hands many times in the last hour on Sunday.
"Yet wouldn’t it be great to watch Lee take it all in his stride and stroll to victory? One of this week’s certainties is that the galleries will be huge.
"Lytham’s in the perfect spot to host an Open. And if they get a British winner the place will go barmy. And if it’s an English winner, the roof will come off. It’s not due, it’s overdue!"