Monty pushing Westwood

8:53am Saturday 28th June 2008

LEE Westwood is looking good to make instant amends this weekend for his US Open nearmiss - and to give himself the perfect boost ahead of The Open.

But halfway through the French Open at Le Golf National near Paris, none other than Colin Montgomerie is on his tail.

Six months into a year which has seen him fall out of the world's top 100, the first time since 1990, Montgomerie birdied the final two holes of his second round to join Westwood on five under par, just two behind Spanish rookie Pablo Larrazabal.

Hartlepool's Graeme Storm remains in contention for the title he won last year - his only European Tour triumph to date.

Storm carded a 70 yesterday and finished the day on four under, three shots adrift of Larrazabal.

Yorkshireman Simon Dyson is also nicely placed, but is two shots further back on the leaderboard.

There will, however, be no appearance from Barnard Castle's Rob Dinwiddie over the weekend after he missed the cut following two rounds of 74, 72.

When asked about his chances of a 32nd European Tour win tomorrow, Montgomerie said: Very good. If I can be patient I have a chance. I had 16 holes of utter, utter frustration and I hate to say the birdies were deserved, but the way I played that was the minimum I deserved.

It was as good as I can play tee-to-green. It was back to the way I won tournaments.'' Westwood has also been easy to spot on the opening two days.

He was the one standing on the fairway, while others disappeared into the hay.

I don't think I've seen rough as bad as this since Carnoustie in 1999 - it's chest-high at points,'' said the former European number one.

Westwood could be back at the top of the Order of Merit tomorrow - and would have been if he had triumphed at Torrey Pines two weeks ago rather than finishing one behind Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate.

I'm constantly being told well played' this week, but while that's great and nice to hear, sometimes you want to forget about and it and concentrate on the French Open."

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