LANCOME TROPHY

JESPER Parnevik's five-stroke victory over Colin Montgomerie in last year's Scandinavian Masters failed to persuade Bernard Gallacher to name him for Ryder Cup duty in America, but yesterday's repeat win over the big Scot in the Lancome trophy in Paris must have impressed new captain Seve Ballesteros.

Montgomerie, astonishingly, opened up with five straight birdies - 3-3-2-3-3 - to go from one behind to two ahead, but the 31-year-old Swede with the upturned visor refused to surrender. Earlier he had described Montgomerie as ``like the energiser bunny in the TV ads who keeps bouncing back'', but it was Parnevik's resilience, not the 33-year-old Scot's, that was to win the day.

Montgomerie, perhaps understandably after the shock of his father's heart attack and triple by-pass operation and subsequent brilliant 24 under par victory in the European Masters, wilted after his flying start to drop six strokes and end with a 71 for 273, only one ahead of fellow Scot Ross Drummond (69) in third place.

Parnevik shot 67 for a 12 under par total of 268, but admitted: ``I thought it was all over after Monty's start - he was running away with it.''

The Swede's #108,330 prize cannot count towards a Ryder Cup debut next year because he is a US Tour campaigner. But Montgomerie, who says he will argue for a change in the qualifying process at the next tournament committee meeting, insists: ``We can't go to Valderrama without him.

``Not many people would have withstood my five under par start, but he was two under himself for the stretch - had he been only level it might have been a different ball game.

``After the sixth I didn't hit a golf shot - I was everywhere, left, right, in the trees, in the bushes, missing putts.

``I opened the door wide and he walked straight through it. When I started losing it my goal was to hang on for second place and I just managed it.''

Parnevik, who also won the Scottish Open by five strokes in 1993, says he will now retire for the season in the hope of curing a persistent neck injury.

He explained: ``The last three years competing in Europe and America have been very hard. My neck began giving me problems at Hiltonhead in April and I was out for five weeks. Then, just before the US Open in June, I was playing a video game and pretending to hole a 60ft putt to win the British Open when I rolled on my back and injured my neck again. I was out for another five weeks.''

The first chink appeared in Montgomerie's armour at the sixth when his opening gallop came to a juddering halt with a bogey 5 after a bunkered approach.

He instantly offered Parnevik more encouragement by uncharacteristically flopping his tee-shot into a pond short left at the par-3 seventh to take 4. That levelled matters at 11 under par, and so it stayed, with Montgomery out in 32 and Parnevik - who had slotted an outrageous 60-footer for a 2 at the last to match Monty's third round 66 - in 33.

The Swede birdied the eleventh to get his nose in front, whereupon Montgomerie collapsed dramatically with three bogeys on the trot.

His fractionally over-hit approach at the thirteenth soared beyond the green and his chip sped down the putting surface to land him with a 5, and at the fourteenth Parnevik's two-stroke lead was swiftly doubled when Montgomerie bunkered his second and the Swede holed from five feet for another birdie 3.

Montgomerie was in free fall now, skewing his drive wide at the fifteenth to end up with yet another 5 to go five adrift. Parnevik had made up seven strokes in the space of 10 holes on the European No.1, whose #72,210 prize increased his total winnings to #642,361.

Drummond collected a #40,690 career-best cheque to increase his season's winnings to #137,114 and move up to thirty-second in the money list.

He said: ``I won only #5000 over the first eight events of the year and thought I was better than that. I've worked very hard on the mental side of the game to increase my confidence.''

Andrew Coltart gave his confidence a boost prior to this week's Loch Lomond Invitational with a closing 70 to tie nineteenth place on 282 for a #7930 prize and move to sixth in the Volvo ranking with #256,072.

He said: ``I'm happy with that after being eight over par for a 34-hole spell in the middle of the tournament.''

Andrew Oldcorn shot 71 for 285 and Steve McAllister (73) and Gary Orr (75) ended on 288.

However, Sam Torrance, after running Montgomerie so close a week earlier, had two double bogeys after visits to lakes in a 76 to end on 289 and admitted: ``It was just a very bad week.'' Leading aggregates:

268 - J Parnevik (Sweden) 66, 69, 66, 67 (#108,330).

273 - C Montgomerie 66, 70 66, 71 (#72,210).

274 - R Drummond 68, 68, 69, 69 (#40,690).

277 - S Cage 66, 74, 70, 67; D Howell 67, 71, 68, 71; C Rocca (Italy) 68, 69, 69, 71.

278 - P Harrington 68, 74, 73, 63; P Eales 71, 69, 68, 70; I Woosnam 67, 68, 70, 73.

279 - M A Jimenez (Spain) 68, 71, 72, 68; R Davis (Australia) 70, 72, 69, 68; P Broadhurst 68, 71, 68, 72; M Roe 68, 73, 65, 73; J Spence 65, 73, 67, 74.

281 - S Ames (Trinidad) 75, 66, 71, 69; D Gilford 75, 68, 68, 70; B Langer (Germany) 67, 71, 71, 72; S Grappsonni (Italy) 69, 67, 70, 75.

282 - A Coltart 66, 72, 74, 70; P Mitchell 70, 73, 67, 72.

283 - J Lomas 74, 69, 71, 69; P Haugsrud (Norway) 71, 70, 72, 70; S Struver (Germany) 72, 70, 70, 71; P Baker 67, 69, 74, 73.

284 - M Gates 76, 67, 71, 70; N Faldo 73, 71, 69, 71; P Price 71, 74, 67, 72.

Other aggregates included:

285 - B Lane 69, 73, 72, 71; A Oldcorn 73, 69, 72, 71.

287 - C Beck (USA) 70, 72, 72, 73; S Ballesteros (Spain) 69, 75, 70, 73; R Rafferty 70, 75, 67, 75.

288 - D Clarke 67, 74, 74, 73; S McAllister 74, 70, 71, 73; G Orr 70, 75, 68, 75.

289 - S Torrance 68, 72, 73, 76.