Dressed in a baby-blue sweater and navy trousers that bunch up around his ample thighs, Montgomerie stands 4 under par, three strokes off the lead at the midway point of the 133rd British Open in Troon, Scotland, his boyhood home.

Before Saturday's third round he is flanked on the practice ground by coach Denis Pugh and caddie Andy Forsyth.

Fred Vuich

Monty is in no hurry. Only here -- surrounded by his payroll and players he's known for years, cheered by his hometown fans even as he ignores their autograph requests -- is he safe from the battering he has endured for three long months.

Colin Montgomerie once blithely predicted that Brad Faxon would be off-form for the 1997 Ryder Cup because Faxon was in the middle of a divorce. Now, on the eve of the 35th Cup matches at Michigan's Oakland Hills Country Club, it's Monty whose marriage has been closed out, whipping up a British tabloid tornado like nothing since jilted coed Brenna Cepelak smashed Nick Faldo's Porsche with a 9-iron.

It was a summer of schadenfreude. Players and fans who had long been annoyed by high-and-mighty Monty relished the headlines: "Monty's Flighty Birdie" (London's Daily Mail), "Sad Monty" (Sunday Mirror), "Troubled Monty" (Daily Mail, Evening Standard), "Gloomy Monty" (Evening Standard), "Misty-Eyed Monty" (Daily Mail) and even "Brave Monty" (Daily Record).

No one plays the victim like Montgomerie. But he is also a survivor, all too familiar with toughing out a tempest, as he did at the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline, going 3-1-1. His career Ryder Cup record is 16-7-5. That's better than Tiger, Phil or Freddie. It's better than any other active Ryder Cupper. With his wife of 14 years gone on the eve of a Ryder Cup defense in hostile territory, Montgomerie is troubled. Embattled. Bloodied, but unbowed. He is in his element.

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