Buoyant Monty bids to end traumas

He was off at 7.44am local time today when he expected the conditions to be kinder. "The greens are slightly damper in the morning. There is more moisture in the air, it's cooler and there's less breeze," he said.

Montgomerie's affinity with US Open courses should also come into play. In 1992 he finished the final round at Pebble Beach to be congratulated by Jack Nicklaus "on doing enough to be our national champion".

Alas, on that occasion a wind that had been whipping in from the Pacific died away and Montgomerie's score was beaten by Jeff Sluman and eventual champion Tom Kite.

In 1994 at Oakmont and three years later at Congressional, only Ernie Els denied Montgomerie, first in a play-off and then by a single shot. Badly affected by the bitter split from wife Eimear, Montgomerie failed to qualify for last year's US Open, which ended a run of appearances that stretched back to 1992. But he is back in the swing of things this week. "When I stood on the tee at the start of the first round I felt I belonged," he said.

The lead, for now, belongs to Mediate and Browne, who pre-qualified for the event earlier this month with an astonishing round of 59.

But ahead of Montgomerie and only one shot shy of the pace-setters were defending champion Retief Goosen, of South Africa, and Monty's Ryder Cup team-mate Lee Westwood, who gamely fought off the effects of a bad chest condition.

Another Englishman, Luke Donald, was one under along with Phil Mickelson. Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh were on level par.

Ian Poulter's target today was to beat the halfway cut after he suffered outrageous misfortune when a short putt for par ran perfectly into the cup only to catch the rim of the metal hole-liner and rebound back out.

Definitely going home when the cut is made later today will be Paul Casey, who was 156th and last after his 15-over-par round of 85.

Meanwhile, Westwood's friend Neil Cheetham believes the player with the hottest putter will win the St Omer Open in northern France.

Cheetham, from Worksop, needed only 28 puts in his opening round of 68 which left him tied for the lead with six others on three under par.