Montgomerie: Difficult day
Colin Montgomerie has crashed out of the USPGA Championship after equalling the worst-ever round in a major.
Montgomerie carded an 84 at Oakland Hills on Friday, equalling his score at the 2002 Open Championship at Muirfield.
Having shot a six-over-par 76 in Detroit on Thursday, the Scot's fortunes plummeted further as 10 bogeys and two doubles were racked up in a birdie-free round.
"That's the most difficult day since my poor score at Muirfield in 2002 - but the conditions added to that one," Montgomerie said.
"Unfortunately, it was a reasonably good day today.
"I got off to a bad start and kept it going. When you get on a bogey run around here it's very difficult to get off it. The course is very, very severe."
Indeed, Montgomerie thought Oakland Hills bore little similarity to the course on which he profited so memorably during the 2004 Ryder Cup.
"It's set up as difficult as any course I've ever played, and nothing like the place that we came and did so well at four years ago," he continued. "It's very, very difficult."
Montgomerie added that he had not thought about next month's clash between Europe and the United States at Valhalla.
Nevertheless, he pointedly said he was not planning on playing again until the final qualifying event, the Johnnie Walker Championship, at Gleneagles in three weeks' time.
"That's furthest from my mind right now. Just let me get home this evening - and I'll think about it later on," he said.
"I wasn't thinking about the Ryder Cup out there; I'm thinking about trying to play as well as I can around here."
Clarke misses out
After shooting a second-round 76 for an 11-over-par total, fellow Ryder Cup star Darren Clarke was another to miss the cut.
And, on the form he demonstrated this week, the Ulsterman admitted he would struggle to make the side as one of captain Nick Faldo's two picks.
"I would struggle to pick myself at the moment," Clarke said. "If I play well in those last couple of weeks and he was to pick me, then great - but I have to play well.
"That is the bottom line - and if I don't I will be watching like everyone else."
