Monty on top after brilliant start

"But there is an awful long way to go and I don't even want to think about the weekend at this stage. I have a bit of experience of this thing now, and I realise that all this is is a good start."

It was a mighty start for Rose. Three summers ago, as a 17-year-old amateur from Hampshire, he shot to fame when he chipped in at the last to secure fourth place behind champion Mark O'Meara at Royal Birkdale. He immediately turned professional in order to exploit that success, but it all went wrong as he missed 21 successive cuts.

It was a torrid time for the youngster hyped as a natural successor to the king of English golf, six-times major winner Nick Faldo. But through it all he remained positive and the epitome of courtesy and politeness.

The rewards came at the start of this season when Rose banked a quarter of a million pounds from two tournaments in South Africa where he twice finished runnerup. And today he looked far more comfortable than Woods, whose demeanor was as sombre as his garb of cap-to-shoe black.

The eagles were flying, Rose sinking a 50ft putt for a three at the par-five seventh, and Montgomerie chipping in from just over the green for his own three at the par-five sixth.

Montgomerie, whose attempts to win a maiden major in his home Open have been thwarted in the past with five missed cuts in his last nine appearances, had opened with a brace of birdies and managed to reach the turn in six-under-par 30.

Rose said: "It was a steady round. I went out and made a few pars and then holed an outrageous eagle which got me going. But my goal today was to try and keep a bogey off the card. Unfortunately I just dropped one at 15 - my tee shot was a little unlucky and kicked left off the fairway - but that is the way it is around here."

Montgomerie had a hiccup with three putts at the 14th for a bogey five. But the Ryder Cup star and winner of a record seven successive European Order of Merits, so often the victim of his own emotions, was clearly revelling in the company of popular American Fred Couples.

Several times the two men could be seen chatting and sharing a joke on the fairway, and the mood of the moment lifted Montgomerie sufficiently that he was able to make a great save at the 15th with a 15ft putt that trickled in by the side entrance.

If his army of supporters liked that one they were in raptures at the last where Montgomerie hit his approach to the perfect distance, and then holed out from 20ft on the right for a birdie three.

Darren Clarke recovered well from a double bogey at the first to finish with a one-under-par 70.

Out on the course, Faldo hit a hat-trick of birdies before tripping up with a double bogey six at the eighth. But Lee Westwood, who has plummeted to 87th place in the Order of Merit after ending Montgomerie's run as European champion last season, made steady progress to turn on level par.