Montgomerie, in a year that has seen him fall out of the world's top 100 for the first time since 1990, birdied the final two holes of his second round of the French Open to join Lee Westwood in third place - two shots behind England's David Lynn and Spanish rookie Pablo Larrazabal.

The eight-time European number one hit a five-iron to four feet, then an eight-iron over water to seven feet to finish in real style and when asked if he felt good about the weekend, he replied "very good."

He added: "If I can be patient and hole a fair share then I have a chance. I had 16 holes of utter, utter frustration and I hate to say the birdies were deserved, but the way I played that was the very minimum I deserved.

"That was as good as I can play from tee to green. I've hit 33 greens in regulation out of 36 round here, which is back to the way that I used to play and win tournaments - through lack of mistakes.

"It wasn't the amount of putts that I holed, it was the amount of mistakes I didn't make. That's good, that's the way that I like to play golf."

Westwood, meanwhile, is looking good to make instant amends for his US Open near-miss - and to give himself the perfect boost ahead of The Open.

Like Montgomerie, Westwood has also been easy to spot on the opening two days. He was another standing on the fairway while others almost literally disappeared into the hay.

He has yet to lift a trophy this year, but his confidence is sky-high and it went up another notch with his bogey-free 68.

Qualifier Larrazabal, one in front after his opening 65, was in the first group out at 7.30am, while Lynn did not finish until nearly 12 hours later and made it a tie at the top by sinking a bunker shot at the last for a superb 65.