Montgomerie chips at the 18th green.

After 13 years of almost undiluted Open championship disappointment, misery and even tears, Colin Montgomerie could hardly stop smiling at Royal Lytham on Thursday.

And no wonder. A six under par round of 65 left Montgomerie sitting proudly on top of the leaderboard - a place he has never visited before.

Only if he is still there on Sunday night with the claret jug and with his first Major title will the 38-year-old Scot consider it mission accomplished, of course.

But given his desperate record in the event, Montgomerie was not going to miss the opportunity to enjoy the moment and the reception he received from the packed grandstands on the famous Lancashire links.

"Even though I was focused on what I was doing you can't not notice the Open championship crowds," he said.

"They were vast and you can feel them willing the ball into the hole.

"The noise when I holed the putt at 18 (a 40-footer by his own reckoning) was fantastic.

"Let us hope they will be cheering as much the rest of the week."

And by that, naturally, he meant cheering him. Montgomerie has missed the halfway cut in five of the last nine Opens and has only once finished in the top 10.

His previous best opening round was a 71 and to be defending a lead rather than playing catch-up is something that he is delighted about rather than worried about.

"I have never suffered through nerves," he stated. "I have never backed off a shot or missed a shot or missed a putt through nerves.

"Lack of confidence sometimes, but not nerves. And I am very fortunate to say that playing this game because a lot of us do."

His relaxed mood was such a contrast to last year at St Andrews, when Montgomerie dissolved into tears on the 12th hole of his second round as problems with his marriage at the time dominated his thoughts.

He went on what people called a "misery diet" after that, shedding around three stones.

But since a reconciliation over the winter he has put half of that back on - and believes his golf has benefited as a result.

He continued: "I think we all have a sort of fighting weight, if you like.

"Obviously leading the Open there is nothing wrong. The Diet Coke I have here is just for the taste.

"I lost my timing when I lost the weight and to have it back must help."

The day was a success from beginning to end for the seven-time European number one - and this in the week when he fell out of the world's top 10 for the first time in seven years.

He birdied the first two holes, then chipped in from 20 feet at the long sixth, the hole on which American Jeff Maggert later sank a 200-yard six-iron for only the fifth albatross ever in the Open.

When he added further birdies from nine and four feet at the eighth and short ninth he was out in a five under 30 - only two outside the championship record.

It did not stop there, though. In went a 30-foot putt on the 10th and even after three-putting the 14th - he blamed a loss of concentration caused by playing partner Fred Couples having four shots in a greenside bunker - he single-putted the last four holes.

The first three were pars, but they were every bit as important as the one on the last for birdie.

All this was while defending champion Tiger Woods, playing three groups ahead, was fighting like crazy just for a level par 71.

In winning by eight last summer Woods had not played a single bunker shot, but Tom Lehman, champion at Lytham in 1996, had warned on Monday with the world number one in mind "there are bunkers for everybody here" - and so it proved.

Woods, having matched Montgomerie's opening birdie, was in no fewer than five traps on his way round, but limited the damage to only three bogeys and also birdied the 13th and 16th.

Darren Clarke's start was very different to that of Montgomerie and Woods. He double-bogeyed the first after taking two in a bunker, but battled back for a 70.

Even with eagles on the sixth and seventh world number two Phil Mickelson finished level with Clarke rather than Montgomerie, while Nick Faldo, having reached three under with a hat-trick of birdies from the fifth, double-bogeyed the next and fell away to a 75 - the same as Lehman, incidentally.

Lee Westwood, the man who succeeded Montgomerie as number one in Europe, had a 73 - he will tomorrow be trying to avoid a fourth missed cut in his last five starts - but Justin Rose, fourth as a 17-year-old amateur in 1998, lapped up the atmosphere again and shot 69.

Sandy Lyle, champion at Sandwich in 1985 but without a win anywhere for nine years, also threatened to upstage his fellow Scot - but from three under after 11 he bogeyed the next two.

Sergio Garcia, twice a winner in America this season and like Jesper Parnevik (69) doing his best to get into Europe's Ryder Cup side by points rather than by pick, was two under with seven to play, but bogeyed the 15th.

Lyle then finished with a double bogey six for a 72 - after driving into a bunker he did not know was there and needing two attempts to recover.

"Pilot error," he said afterwards. "A par or even a birdie there and it would have been a good day's work."

However, last year's British amateur champion Mikko Ilonen from Finland turned in 32 as most of the crowd headed home and then birdied the 13th to go second on his own at four under.

Ilonen, who turned professional after playing the first two rounds of the Masters with Woods, bogeyed the 14th, but then had another birdie on the 16th.