COLIN MONTGOMERIE, Europes number one in seeming perpetuity, yesterday, with an almost casual confidence, dismissed the latest of his nearest rivals, Ian Woosnam, from the Toyota World Matchplay championship at Wentworth.

Standing eight under par on the 16th tee, the 34th of the match, and three up. Montgomerie eventually had two putts for it from eight feet. He was conceded the match without being asked to putt and the result, which according to centuries old custom and practice would have been recorded as three and two, was duly recorded as four and two.

The latter version conforms strictly to the rules, the former far more to the etiquette of the game, particularly that which relates to consideration for your opponent, a department which increasingly is being ignored in these highly competitive, deeply intense, over exuberant days.

By the end, Woosnam was a well beaten man. He has won four tournaments this season and well over £500,000, but it seems to have made him weary. In these last few weeks he has, at times, looked old beyond his years, a frown never far away.

He is only 38, but he has been at, or around, the top of golf in Europe since 1982 and he has been in the top 10 for 11 of those 14 years. But now he looks overweight, presumably because his aching back and legs will not let him exercise, he walks with the stooped gait of a man much older and, something that seems vaguely wrong, he is forever taking tablets, sometimes even on the golf course, for relief from his spondylocis, a deteriorating spinal condition.

Very much to his credit, he refused to make his problems an excuse for yesterday's defeat. He said he felt fine, except for a few holes towards the end when the match was all but determined, and he blamed his putting more than anything.

But he was also being outdriven by up to 30 yards by Montgomerie, a man he is more than capable of matching off the tee under normal circumstances. "I don't feel free enough in my body to hit it as far as I used to," he said.

To the eyes of those accustomed to the Woosnam swing, it seemed as though he was fairly lashing at the ball to the Welshman himself it felt as though he was swinging slower than usual. That can only be because, having lost form in recent weeks, he has been lashing even harder in previous tournaments than here. Whatever, he has lost his rhythm and some of his length, just at a time when he needed all his assets to cope with Europe's finest.

Montgomerie, by contrast, felt that he was hitting the ball further than ever before, and that yesterday's display of driving was "as good as I can do. I have never," he added, "hit the ball better or further off the tee."

The Scot thought that it was maybe something to do with matchplay giving him the freedom to have a go. "I even took my driver on the sixth and 16th holes," he said, "something I would never do in a strokeplay event, like, say, the Volvo PGA when it's here."

The ninth hole in the morning was, Montgomerie felt, crucial. He was two down and 12 feet away in three, with Woosnam six feet away in the same number but it was Montgomerie who holed and the Welshman who missed and a possible three down became only one down. He played the back nine in 33, four under, to go into lunch one up. An outward half of 32 in the afternoon took care of the details.

Montgomerie made a Freudian slip when he said that he thought it unfortunate that he and Woosnam were "paired together" for yesterday's match, for there was, of course, a draw. He felt that Woosnam "might have gone on" had he played someone different.

Phil Mickelson played the shot of the day, at a vitally important moment in his match with Vijay Singh, and still lost. The US number one had previously, at the 34th, played a thoroughly indifferent tee shot into the trees to go two down with two to play, then won the 35th and, having bunkered his second at the 36th, actually saw his recovery shot fly directly into the hole for what, for a nanosecond, was an eagle.

But the ball popped out again, Mickelson clasped both sides of his head in disbelief and Singh was left with a simple chip and putt to win the match.