Loch-lomond

Phil Mickelson brushed aside concerns over a wrist injury that has hampered his game recently as he swept into a share of the early lead at the £3-million Scottish Open on Thursday. Ernie Els got off to a frustrating start, bunkering his approach to his first hole, the 10th, and immediately dropping a shot.

Colin Montgomerie has turned to a sports psychologist to put him in the right frame of mind to finally slay his major tournament jinx at next week’s British Open. The big Scot suffered his most agonising near miss yet when he left a seven iron from the centre of the fairway short of the final green in last month’s United States Open, running up a double-bogey that allowed Geoff Ogilvy to claim the title.