It was perhaps not the rousing reception he had hoped for. Colin Montgomerie waddled down the 72nd hole at Royal Troon to the kind of modest, yet respectful, round of applause you’d get when a professor takes to a lectern to deliver a short presentation on the mating habits of the freshwater grebe.

“It was just a shame I was on my own because the stands were empty really and it was a pity,” said Montgomerie after taking his bow on the course where he is an honorary member. “It would have been nice to play in the middle of the pack when the stands are beginning to fill up. That would have been more emotional than it was when they're empty. But I got a good ovation anyway, which was super.”

Monty had hit the very first tee shot to get the 145th championship underway on Thursday. Yesterday, he was out first again … as the man who was in last place after 54 holes. First in meant he set a sturdy clubhouse target of 17-over. Now, just sit in comfort, relax and watch the leaders slither back to you? “I’m the leader in the clubhouse again and they do say it’s not finished until the last putt is holed,” joked Montgomerie after reeling off six straight pars on Royal Troon’s formidable finish in a closing 76 before charging off to perform his duties in the commentary box.

At 53, Montgomerie is well aware that the clock is ticking on his Open career. Of course, he could always guarantee himself a return to the world’s oldest major at Royal Birkdale in 2017 by winning this week’s Senior Open at Carnoustie. Sounds simple eh?

“You've got to be realistic and think that it might well be the last time I'm here at an Open,” said the former Ryder Cup skipper who was making his 22nd Open Championship appearance after coming through the rigorous 36-hole final qualifier. “I'd love to think it won't be, but, yes, it might well be.”

Talking of ticking clocks, Montgomerie wasted no time birling around the links in the morning. He had to go out with a marker – the Royal Troon head professional Kieron Stevenson – and the pair bounded round in a sprightly two hours 50 minutes. Monty wouldn’t like to be propping up the leaderboard every week but getting out and about early certainly has its benefits.

“Everyone in the scorer's tent and even our own scorer said that was refreshing and it's the way to play golf,” he said as he began his sermon on pace of play in the modern era. “I'm sure those of you who are my age were all brought up on a round of golf taking three hours. I was. I was brought up here. This is three hours here. And even the old boys get around in three hours. Why four and a half hours, five hours in major play has become the norm, I don't know. The sooner we get back to trying to play this game at a sensible pace, the better. It's a more technical game now as opposed to a more natural game. You used to see it by sight. Lee Trevino always saw it by sight, didn't he? And he felt it was a 7-iron or a 6-iron whatever and hit it. Now yardage is everything. You have people lining up the ball and remarking it again and again on the green. If everyone does that, God, it's 30 minutes extra.”

Monty’s time in the Opens may be running out but Russell Knox should have plenty more in him. The 31-year-old Inverness exile signed off from a testing campaign with a battling two-under 69 for his two-over aggregate of 286.

Knox has been back in his homeland for both the Scottish Open and the Open over the past fortnight but the Florida resident, who was well happit up in a full armoury of heat retaining garments, was itching to get back to the warmer climes of the US. Asked if he’ll be back on European Tour duty any time soon, Knock chuckled: “never, if the weather is like this.”

Knox will enjoy a few days off before heading to Baltusrol for the US PGA Championship, the final major of the season, next week. The Scot remains an outsider for a Ryder Cup spot and he is well aware of that. “I don't need Darren (Clarke, the European captain) to give me a pep talk or tell me anything.," he added. "It's up to me. I need to crack the whip and if I don't, I don't deserve to make it.”

To wrap up the Scots, Paul Lawrie, the 1999 Open champion, signed off with a 74 for a 10-over 294.