By Damian Spellman, PA Sport

Five-times Open winner Peter Thomson urged Colin Montgomerie to remodel his swing if he is to achieve his dreams of winning a major.

The Scot crashed out of contention at Muirfield on Saturday when he carded a disastrous third round 84 in the teeth of a gale, 20 shots poorer than his course-record 64 24 hours earlier.

Thomson believes his swing let him down as conditions turned nasty, and advised him to return to the drawing board.

"I felt really sorry for him, but Monty really has got a very flawed swing and these things catch up with you on a day like yesterday," he told BBC Radio 5 Live's Sportsweek programme.

"He takes the club up outside the line, as we call it, and then loops it back in, and that's a pretty dangerous way to go about hitting a golf ball, especially in a wind like yesterday.

"I think he's got to do something about that swing of his. It would take him first of all acceptance that he has to do it, and then it would take him a few weeks, I think, that's all."

Asked if he thought Montgomerie would one day eventually win one of the majors, he replied: "Not unless he changes that swing. He's got everything else. He's got determination more than most."

The Scot was not the only man to find himself in Thomson's firing line as Tiger Woods, who shot a 10-over-par 81 on Saturday, also came in for criticism.

"His weakness is that he's not a swinger, he's what they call a slugger, and when you play in wind like that, you've really got to have smoothness, rather like Ernie Els," he said.

However, the Australian, who lifted the Claret Jug in 1954, 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1965, admitted that proof that Woods is human after all is a good thing for world golf in general and the Open Championship in particular.

"It's not only good for the game, it's good for the Open Championship because unless the Open Championship is difficult to win, it's not the ultimate championship, is it?" he said.

"He's really got more talent than most around him. He does dominate in the way that he wins four or five big things a year, but then other people win things.

"It's not like tennis where he wins every time out. He wins his fair share because he's the best."