Montgomerie and Daly set sights on $lm TCL classic

Dongguan, China (Agence France-Presse): American John Daly will be hoping to end his title drought while European Ryder Cup hero Colin Montgomerie will be seeking back-to-back wins when the TCL Classic begins Thursday.

The setting for the inaugural event, China's first US$1 million golf event, is the Robert Trent Jones Ildesigned Harbour Plaza Golf Club in Dongguan, Guangdong province.

Montgomerie, who has been plagued with niggling back problems this year, has shown a welcome return to form since spearheading Europe's victory in the Ryder Cup in September.

The 39-year-old Scot ended a 15-month winless streak last week when he shared first place with Ryder Cup partner Bernhard Langer at the season-ending Volvo Masters in Spain, when darkness set in after they had played two extra holes.

The late finish meant Montgomerie missed his scheduled flight to China, arriving only late Tuesday.

"I'm a little bit surprised (with China). It's much hotter than I thought... too hot! But I look forward to the competition," said Montgomerie, the only man to have won the European Order of Merit title seven times in succession.

"I'm a little bit tired, but I should be OK by tomorrow."

Two-time major winner Daly began the year in blistering form, posting two fourth-place finishes at the Phoenix Open and Buick Invitational in his first three starts of 2002.

However, the 1991 USPGA and 1995 British Open champion's form has been mediocre since.

Daly is winless since his victory at the BMW International Open in Germany last year and was not overly confident of ending his barren run here.

"The way I'm playing, I could get my amateur status back! No seriously, I have not really been playing as I've spent a lot of time at home with my mum. She's not been well," said Daly.

Daly, nicknamed "Wild Thing", has been forced to tee off with his three-wood since breaking his driver in a trademark booming drive on the fourth hole on Tuesday.

However, Daly said the battered club would be fixed in time for Thursday.

"It's an awesome golf course. Most of the players love it. The fairways are very wide pretty much all the way round but unfortunately there are a lot of three woods that I have to hit here," he said.

However, crowd favorite Daly will be hoping to use his prodigious power to take advantage of the four reach-able par-fives.

The club's director of golf Tim Shaver, had no doubt Daly — who topped the U.S. tour's driving statistics lor the 11th time in 12 years with an average drive of 306.8 yards — would relish the challenge of the course's signature hole, the 600-yard par-five fourth.

"He'll go for it in two shots. no doubt. He'll probably reach it with a drive and an iron!" he predicted.

It is Daly's first trip to Asia since the American pulled out of the BMW Asian Open in Taiwan and the Omega Hong Kong Open at the end of last year after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.