SOUTHAMPTON golfer Richard Bland carried on his recent top form in the Celtic Manor Wales Open yesterday.

Bland, left, who secured his European Tour card for next season in style last weekend by winning £122,000 for fifth place in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, went into this week's event in confident mood.

A double bogey at the par three eighth hole put Bland in danger of missing the cut at one over par but he began the back nine in scintillating style.

The Stoneham professional rattled in six consecutive threes, including three birdies, and followed up with a fourth birdie at the 17th to card an impressive second round 66.

That moved him 39 places up the leaderboard to a share of 44th place, and he looked like beating the cut by two shots.

It was a different story for Salisbury's Gary Emerson who, like Bland, is in the enviable position of having won enough money already to secure his European Tour card.

Emerson's rounds of 71 and 69, the latter an up-and-down effort including six birdies and six bogeys, left him one over par and looking like missing the cut.

Meanwhile, Colin Montgomerie admitted "I blew it" after squandering a stunning start to his second round.

Montgomerie was five under par after seven holes on a Roman Road course which has already yielded one score of 60 and two 61s so far this week.

But the eight-time European number one then bogeyed three of his next eight holes and was forced to settle for a 66 and nine under par halfway total of 129.

That left the 42-year-old Scot five shots behind leader Robert Karlsson of Sweden.