Golf: Mize the winner by many a mile as Montgomerie goes to pieces: Johnnie Walker World Championship a one-horse race after front nine

LARRY MIZE was not meant to be here. Greg Norman decided he did not need the extra half a million or so and Mize not only took his place but won the Johnnie Walker World Championship and dollars 550,000 ( pounds 380,000). The Americans, uninvited or not, have made a habit this year of taking the bounty home. Bernhard Langer, who won the US Masters, has been the only European to stem the tide but he was a distant runner-up yesterday.

There was a major party in Montego Bay on Saturday night - 60,000 light bulbs and 600 people - and most of the players left early. Mize was among them. He attended church yesterday morning before taking Colin Montgomerie to the cleaners. Big Monty, the only player going into the fourth and final round within accurate hitting distance of the leader, completely lost it over the front nine.

Montgomerie won the European Tour Order of Merit last month and began the final round three strokes behind Mize. Big Monty was confident of overhauling the American but in fact played so erratically that he was overtaken by another American, Fred Couples. By the fourth hole on another sweltering day at the Tryall course, the game was not afoot, it was up.

Montgomerie had a bogey- four at the third hole; Mize a birdie-two; at the fourth Montgomerie had a bogey-six, Mize a birdie-four. Suddenly Mize was seven strokes in front and it was all the encouragement he needed to take a stroll in the sun. Mize shot 65, two strokes outside the course record established by Greg Norman 12 months ago.

By the time Mize got to the 18th he could have putted from here to eternity and probably still have won. On 266, he finished at 18 under, 10 strokes in front of Couples, 11 in front of Langer and 12 in front of Montgomerie.

Montgomerie's initial reaction was this: 'No comment. I don't need to attend the prize giving.' When he had cooled down a few minutes later he said: 'That's the worst nine holes I've played this year. I tried to get it back but I wasn't playing well. It's just a shame that it happened in the last round of the year. Sometimes you can try a wee bit too hard.'

This was patently evident over the opening holes and when Big Monty took three putts at the short third and Mize one, the American held the deeds to Mayfair and the Scotsman was heading for the Old Kent Road. The transformation was confirmed at the fourth where Big Monty drove right, slammed his club into the ground and compounded error upon error by missing a putt from around two feet.

There was no escape. Montgomerie, who finished the leader of the European Tour by winning the Volvo Masters at Valderrama, continued to drop shots, taking bogey-fives at the seventh, eight and ninth holes. He went to the turn in 40, Mize in 32. At the eighth Montgomerie's drive again drifted to the right, sufficiently wayward for his ball to strike a man on the head and it ricocheted further right on to the head of a female spectator.

It may have been irrevelant, for Mize could hardly put a foot wrong. Out in 32, back in 33, six birdies, no bogeys. The 35-year-old Augustan, who won the Masters in his own back yard in 1987, has won enough money since not to worry his bank manager but, on the other hand, he has rarely bothered the scorers in the championships that matter. Whether this one has the status to match its prize- money is another matter. No matter to Mize, who said he played the four best rounds of his life.

The key to Tryall is hitting the fairways and nobody could match Mize's accuracy off the tee. It becomes trial and error when you cannot control the driver. In addition to that, of course, Mize's putting was unerringly on target. 'I owe Greg a Christmas present,' Mize said. After the third round, Montgomerie commented that the heat would be on the leader. Mize admitted that the pressure played on his mind. 'The butterflies were in my stomach. Fortunately they're now flying in formation.'

Mize, who has emulated Couples in that he has raided the Caribbean as an invitee as his fellow American did in the inaugural championship in 1991, has recently emulated other world leaders by taking lessons from David Leadbetter.

Couples, who is not a Leadbetter devotee, shot 64 yesterday to finish in second place and he won dollars 300,000. That was despite a double-bogey-seven on the fourth. He sailed home in 31 with five birdies in a row from the 11th and Faldo came back with an identical score over the back nine after reaching the turn in 39. Faldo, who finished at three under par, joint sixth, said: 'I've been struggling with my swing but at least I leave on a better note. In two months time it will be awesome. I will be ready for next spring.'

JOHNNIE WALKER WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP (Montego Bay, Jam) Leading final-round scores: 266 L Mize (US) 67 66 68 65. 276 F Couples (US) 71 69 72 64. 277 B Langer (Ger) 71 68 69 69. 278 C Montgomerie (GB) 67 69 68 74. 279 C Strange (US) 73 68 72 66. 281 N Faldo (GB) 70 72 69 70; B Faxon (US) 69 69 71 72. 282 V Singh (Fiji) 72 70 71 69; S Elkington (Aus) 68 65 77 72; E Els (SA) 66 73 70 73. 283 F Allem (SA) 69 69 72 73. 284 S Torrance (GB) 73 74 67 70. 285 G Brand Jnr (GB) 70 76 72 67; C Pavin (US) 72 75 70 68. 287 T Kite (US) 73 74 72 68; L Janzen (US) 73 76 70 68; S Richardson (GB) 73 71 73 70; J Maggert (US) 76 67 70 74; C Rocca (It) 71 66 74 76. 289 D Frost (SA) 69 74 76 70. 291 J Parnevik (Swe) 74 74 71 72; B Crenshaw (US) 75 71 72 73. 292 I Woosnam (GB) 73 73 74 72; D Love (US) 73 70 76 73. 293 J Gallagher Jnr (US) 73 76 70 74. 297 S Okuda (Japan) 79 72 72 74. 303 B Hughes (Aus) 76 74 76 77. 307 P Baker (GB) 74 78 79 76.