Monty on a roll in Loch Lomond

Just as he did in Paris last Saturday, Colin Montgomerie began to make good use of an unexpected chance to play today.

Montgomerie was convinced he had missed the halfway cut in the Barclays Scottish Open but, more than six hours after Europe’s Ryder Cup captain had finished his second round yesterday, Swede Martin Erlandsson let him back in by finishing his round bogey, bogey, triple bogey.

The 46-year-old Scot had earlier birdied the same three holes and indeed had finished with four in a row to make it through with nothing to spare at level par, and when he returned this morning further birdies came at the third and fourth.

That was sufficient to elevate him from 65th to 44th but two under par was still a world away from overnight leader Retief Goosen, who at 11 under was two in front of Australian Adam Scott.

A week ago Montgomerie also survived by the skin of his teeth at the French Open before firing a third-round 65 to move all the way up to 11th.

Seven more birdies came in the final round but a poor finish sent him back down to 13th and kept him without a top-10 finish for more than a year.

Montgomerie had a six-foot chance to move to three under on the ninth - a driveable par four for the big-hitters with the tee moved up - but missed the putt.

Ian Poulter was also two under after birdies at the fourth and fifth, while defending champion Graeme McDowell stood one under with five to play.

With a bogey on the 12th and then a third birdie of the day two holes later, Montgomerie was two under and really only an also-ran in the tournament.

Lee Westwood, on the other hand, was moving into contention with a hat-trick of birdies from the second to reach six under and joint 12th place.

On Thursday the former European number one was calling himself “stupid” for playing because of a chest infection, but antibiotics appeared to have done the trick and a second-round 66 was an instant return to the form that saw him reach a play-off for the French Open last Sunday.

Westwood was playing with stablemate Rory McIlroy, but the 20-year-old double-bogeyed the fourth for the second day running and fell back to one under.