GOLF: Colin Montgomerie has returned to the scene of his only European Tour victory last year having gone out of his way to prepare properly for the Caltex Masters in Singapore.
The Scot, who sank the putt which won the Ryder Cup in America last September, faces some high-class opposition in the defence of his title.
Ryder Cup team-mates Lee Westwood and David Howell, Thomas Bjorn and last season's Volvo PGA Championship winner Scott Drummond are all in the field which tees off at the Laguna National Golf and Country Club tomorrow.
Montgomerie and Westwood are making their first appearances of the year on the 2005 European Tour but the 41-year-old Scot is confident of a good performance.
A week spent preparing at his course in Dubai with coach Denis Pugh has also given him renewed optimism after a year of mixed fortunes on and off the course in 2004.
"The weather was so bad at home that I decided to go to Dubai to practice there. I need to start well," said Montgomerie, whose win last year was his first since the Volvo Masters at Valderrama in November 2002.
"It's always nice to come to the course where you've won before and get the feeling of success. I'm looking forward to trying to defend my title."
Montgomerie is a shadow of his former self having lost two and a half stone over the last year or so and he believes that has helped him get his game back on track.
"I've had a bad back for the last three years and I had a poor run of form with my back injury," he said. "I thought the best was to lose a bit of weight and it's helped. I'm fine now physically."
Westwood begins his season looking to improve on the eight top-10 finishes he had on the Tour last season which saw him finish in the Order of Merit but without a win in 2004.
Ryder Cup colleague Howell has already had two top 10s this season, finishing tied eighth at the SAA Open in Durban last week and joint sixth at the Omega Hong Kong Open, which is part of the 2005 schedule but was held in December.
If the Swindon-born golfer can reproduce some of the form from his last two rounds in South Africa he could be a contender this week.
He forced himself into contention with a five-under-par 67 on Saturday and was a couple of shots off the lead with five holes to play on the final day when a couple of bad holes ended his challenge.
Thailand's Thongchai Jaidee, last season's Asian Tour number one, will lead the region's challenge alongside India's Jyoti Randhawa, who finished second on the Order of Merit last season, and 2003 Caltex Masters champion China's Zhang Lian-wei.
Ireland's Graeme McDowell, Peter Lawrie and Damien McGrane are in the field along with Gary Murphy.
