Monty: No cheating, just a dash for safety

Colin Montgomerie today admitted he would rather face allegations of cheating on the golf course than chance his life in a lightning storm.

Montgomerie was speaking for the first time about the incident during the second round of the Indonesian Open in March when he fled the course without adhering to the rules by marking his ball which lay in an awkward spot in a bunker.

When he returned for the resumption of play the next day the ball had disappeared and the Scot, with the aid of his playing partners, had to guess where it had been.

As television pictures later revealed, Montgomerie had replaced his ball in a different spot and that led to Danish rival Soren Kjeldson writing to the European Tour to complain.

When Montgomerie learned of his error, for which he was cleared by the tournament director, he immediately donated his fourth-place prize of £24,000 to the tsunami fund.

Last night, on the eve of the pro-am for the Dunlop Masters at the Forest of Arden course near Coventry, he faced further questioning about the incident at a meeting of the Tour's tournament committee.