Colin Montgomerie, whose form this season means that he is struggling to qualify for the Europe Ryder Cup team to take on the United States at Valhalla in Louisville, Kentucky in September, is only two strokes off the clubhouse leader at the French Open in Paris after a second round of 68 yesterday.

Six months into a year during which he has fallen out of the world's top 100 for the first time since 1990, the Scot birdied the final two holes of his second round to join a group of five, including Lee Westwood, the Englishman, on five under par, only two strokes behind Pablo Larrazabal, the Spanish rookie, the leader in the clubhouse.

Montgomerie hit a five-iron to four feet, then an eight-iron over water to seven feet to finish in style and when asked about his chances of a 32nd European Tour win tomorrow he 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 could be back at the top of the Order of Merit tomorrow evening and would have been already if he had triumphed at the US Open at Torrey Pines, near San Diego in California, two weeks ago rather than finishing one stroke behind Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate in third place. “I'm constantly being told ‘well played' this week, but while that's great and nice to hear, sometimes you want to forget about it and concentrate on the French Open,” Westwood said.