After his opening round of 63, Montgomerie was five under par after just seven holes on day two at Celtic Manor.  However, the eight-times European number one was unable to maintain his meteoric progress, proceeding to bogey three of his next eight holes.  The net result of his day's efforts was a 66, leaving him with a nine-under total - five shots behind halfway leader, Robert Karlsson.  With the combination of course and conditions producing a spate of low scoring thus far, Monty could only feel frustration having not performed better.  "I'm very disappointed," he said. "Five under after seven was a great start and I blew it really to only finish three under from there."  I had a perfect chance to go forward and open a gap but I have come back to the pack.

The 42-year-old was particularly upset with his bogey at the par-five 16th - a hole readily regarded as a birdie opportunity.  I'm very disappointed, especially with 16. Everyone on the leader board is making birdie there and I made bogey so there's two or three shots gone. I got an unlucky lie in the bunker and made a mess of it from there."

 

Karlsson fired a six-under-par 63 to complement his opening-round 61, the Swede's play over the opening two days being good enough to open up a four-shot gap ahead of the pack.

Like Montgomerie, Karlsson was five under after seven and, after bogeying the eighth, the Monaco-based 36-year-old scored two birdies and one bogey on the back nine.

 

Tied for second are Englishmen Phillip Archer, who backed up his opening day 60 with a one-under 68, Paul Broadhurst (64) and Simon Dyson (62).  Montgomerie lies on his own in fifth place, one shot ahead of Jose-Filipe Lima who carded the day's best round of 61.

 

Like Archer on day one, Lima had threatened to break the European Tour's magical 60 barrier, the Portuguese 24-year-old going out in just 30 shots. After birdies at the 12th, 13th - Lima holing a bunker shot - and 14th, the possibility of history being made looked very real. But Lima's run came to a halt after he three-putted the 15th.

 

After an opening-day 70, defending champion, Miguel Angel Jimenez, again proved unable to join in with the low scorers, the Spaniard missing the cut after a 73 handed him a five-over total.