By Phil Casey, PA Sport, Atlanta

Paul Lawrie will say a special thank you to Colin Montgomerie when the pair play a practice round ahead of the US Masters at Augusta on Tuesday.

Lawrie headed for the first major of the year in high spirits on Monday after finishing joint ninth in the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta.

The former Open champion only received an invite to make his debut in the event late last week when Montgomerie pulled out, and admitted his former Ryder Cup partner would probably be expecting something in return.

"I'm sure he will want something," joked Lawrie, who will tee off with Montgomerie at 9am local time tomorrow morning.

"It's difficult getting invites when there are only four international ones allowed but when Monty pulled out Tim Finchem (US Tour commissioner) kindly gave me his place.

"I've played more before the Masters than ever before and that was the idea. It used to be my third or fourth event of the year and you just can't do that. This is my seventh or eighth so I've doubled my schedule and now I feel as if I can just stand up and play golf.

"This is exactly what I wanted. I played really nicely yesterday and it's been a very good week. Yesterday was more like it's going to be next week with the wind blowing a little.

"Tee to green all year I've been fantastic and I'm starting to putt a lot better. I'm not putting any pressure on myself going into next week (he has missed the cut in all three previous starts) but I'm looking forward to it."

Lawrie went from Sugarloaf to meet his wife Marian at Atlanta airport before heading to their rented house for the week in Augusta.

Tomorrow's round with Montgomerie will be his first look at the changes made to the famous layout, and last year's runner-up Retief Goosen is also keen to get a look at the course.

The European number one finished joint third behind unknown American Ben Crane in the defence of his title in Atlanta and is keen to go one better than his second place finish behind Tiger Woods in the Masters 12 months ago.

"It's changed a lot over the last couple of years so it will be interesting to see what it will be like," added the South African.

"Last year it played very long with all the rain but this year hopefully the weather forecast is a bit better. Yesterday was a nice round to take to next week. A few more of those next week would be nice."