Two years later, in 1994, he pulled up on the same 279 tally as Loren Roberts and Ernie Els, a situation which paved the way for the following morning’s 18-hole play-off. On this occasion, as he has since admitted, he donned a dark shirt which did not marry with the sticky heat. He was hot and bothered even before he began par, double-bogey, double-bogey on his way to the 78 which had him missing sudden-death between Roberts and Els by four shots.
Els won that day and he would defeat Montgomerie again at Congressional in 1997. Monty’s mistake that year was to wait for the crowd to calm down at the 18th before he tackled the five-footer he needed on the nearby 17th green to stay level with the South African. When it came to him that the crowd were not remotely interested in keeping a respectful silence for overseas players, it was too late.
"By the time I felt ready to putt," remembered the Scot, "the doubts you can have over any length of putt if you stand over it for long enough had caught up with me." He missed and Els won by one.
Winged Foot in 2006 was more painful. He will tell you that the biggest ‘if only’ attached to his eventual loss to Geoff Ogilvy was his choice of a 7-iron for his approach into the green after a brilliant drive. He miscued and ended up with a six when a par four would have given him the win he craved.
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