A GLORIOUS FEELING, I'M HAPPY AGAIN...

Thirty-six thousand brollies were raised at once among a crowd jostling over the slippery hillocks of Lancashire’s sodden coast. They ought to have been checked in at the gates as dangerous weapons.

Never mind. Golfing conditions were so bad here yesterday morning that Sandy Lyle and Rich Beem packed up halfway round Royal Birkdale and went home.

But then striding through the storm with a big, round grin, his waterproofs blithely cast aside, came Mr Sunshine himself, Colin Montgomerie.

Three over par at 73 on another day could have ­driven Monty into one of his rages. Yet when he came off the 18th and shook himself dry, he couldn’t stop chuckling.

He burst into laughter on TV. He said he had fancied stopping for a beer as he passed by the partying fans of playing partner, the Florida Good ’Ol Boy Boo Weekley, who must have needed a slug of ­moonshine himself after ­finishing 10 over.

Monty even risked bringing down a more dramatic wrath of the heavens, by exclaiming the man upstairs had been behind the day’s weather and “he had messed up”.

What an extraordinarily ­complex man Montgomerie is. This last joke was accompanied by another huge beaming grin, delivered as he swivelled around to exit the press tent. It was just like Eric Morecambe leaving the stage.

Yet only a fortnight ago he was having one of the most ­infamous tantrums of his career, berating a ­cameraman at the European Open and telling him haughtily that, “I’m the only reason you’re here.”

Nobody will ever fathom him out but the reason for his good cheer yesterday was obvious enough. Getting around this course in 73 in this weather was a cause for deep satisfaction.

“It keeps me in contention for the weekend,” he said. “When it could easily have been a 76 or a 77, which would have finished it. It was ­miserable out there. If you’d have offered me a 73 at the first tee in the ­pouring rain, I’d have gone straight back indoors, had another ­coffee and been very happy.”

Montgomerie thinks he can win this championship, even though he has had a poor year. A first Major triumph after all these years would be one of the sporting stories of the year, but there is a subtext playing while he battles around these links. It is about whether he will go to the Ryder Cup in September.

The Ryder Cup without Monty would be like The Open without Tiger, although all the suggestions that Woods’ absence would devalue this tournament were blown away yesterday by the intrigue of the battle with the elements of those present.

In fact, Monty’s absence would be more significant because he has embedded his authority and presence so deeply into Europe’s current  domination of the Ryder Cup. Woods is iconic in Open history after three ­triumphs but he has also failed to win nine times.

Put simply, even if he doesn’t win, Monty needs to perform here. He needs to prove to the sceptical captain Nick Faldo  that he’s in shape for the tussle.

This too was surely behind Monty’s cheerful demeanour. By taming the wind and rain effectively enough – only a week after he missed the cut at the Scottish Open – he seemed to have proven in his own mind that he is capable of fighting.

There were bogeys at the ­second, fifth and the ­seventh and a double at the 10th, when Monty knew he was teetering on the edge of collapse.

But the birdie he ­summoned at the fourth was repeated at the 12th and, from then on, he guided himself steadily home. This recovery was important because Monty’s spirit and his unique affinity for the Ryder Cup, his astonishing capacity to grow and take on its special challenges, will be critical.

It will be hot and oppressive in Louisville and the US team will be doubly fired up by their rumbustious Southern captain Paul Azinger and by their need to end the humiliation of three successive defeats. A repeat of 1999’s bitter Battle of Brookline is likely. Big men will be required to deal with it.

“I’ve played in eight Ryder Cups and I want to play in a ninth,” Monty said. “I’ve got four more tournaments left in which to do something good and this round here has given me a good opportunity to make more points.”

Montgomerie is 45 and his battle to make it to Valhalla could be seen as a raging against the dying of the light. An Open win would solve the problem…but it’s unlikely.

Even so, the old lion that sleeps inside him deserves one more chance to go on the prowl in America in eight weeks’ time. He finally started to prove why.