Monty interrupted his customary winter hibernation for a trip to the Sandbelt area of Melbourne for his first outing in Australia since the World Cup in Royal Melbourne 12 years ago. A worthy return it was too. He sported the gaudy winners Australian Masters jacket for the award ceremony late on Sunday.

Everyone seemed happy at Huntingdale, especially the sponsors, their star billing had come up with the goods, it was money well spent as far as they were concerned.

Even the runners-up to Monty were reasonably content. Nathan Green won half-a-million dollars for a hole-in-one at the 12th and finished second by himself. Brett Rumford, who took a two shot lead into the final round was not overly excited about his 76 closing round. However, he was happy to be back in contention for a tournament, something that he had not done for a couple of years.

I watched the end of the event on television in the bar with the sound turned down. Not a normal procedure for me not to listen to the commentary. It is the one time in golf commentary that I would have wished to hear what the "experts" had to say. Monty's tee shot on the 17th headed towards the bush on the unsettled north wind. Next thing Monty's ball reappeared to the left of the bush having rebounded hard from deep within. As a result he was left with a clear swing and a relatively simple cut shot to the green with a hurting left to right wind (the ideal wind to assist the execution of a cut shot). It was a bad shot that Colin hit at an inopportune moment. Normally this will lose you a tournament. The outcome, had things gone as they normally do when your ball heads towards the jungle, should have been at best a bogey five, possibly a six or even seven. As it happened Monty hit his approach to 18 feet and rolled the ball to the hole for a comfortable four. An escape from a sentence of O J Simpson proportions.

The old pro still had to par the last which he did, I cannot take that away from him, even if the 18th was playing softer than it had all week, driver/eight iron for a reasonable hitter.

We all know from personal experience or from subconscious surrender to the constant reminder by television commentators over our golfing lives, that you need luck at this game. How long the torturous memory can linger after a "blow out" on the back nine. Nightmares, cold sweats or the repeated "what ifs". Good luck is instantly forgettable in golf, whereas bad luck can be dragged out as evidence of your misfortune for years to come. Greg Norman may well subscribe to this school of thought.

Basically what I would like to do here is be Colin Montgomerie's selective memory for Sunday, February 18th at about 4.45 p.m.. "Lucky, lucky lucky ducker, Harry Houdini would have been pleased with that escape". I couldn't hear the commentators views on the matter, I was alone in the bar watching the silent screen. I wanted to scream "blessed" or even stronger words which wouldn't have been very sociable.

I scoured the Australian newspapers early the next morning for the tales of Monty's victory. Deep in the many reports was a cursory couple of lines about "slight fortune" on the 17th. The main story seemed to be the slightly heavier putter Colin decided to use for Sunday's round, which reduced his putting averages from over thirty for the first three rounds to under 30 for the winning final round. What about the weight and position of the branch that Monty's ball came bounding off? No analysis, no mention, too difficult to assess.

There is a school of thought in Buddhist philosophy that never judges a seemingly lucky or unlucky occurrence. "Good luck? bad luck? I don't know", it suggests with sage caution. I don't need Buddha to judge the outcome of Monty's ball rebounding out of the bush in the final round of the Australian Masters; good luck, very good luck.