Colin Montgomerie made a solid if unspectacular start to his bid to win three senior Majors in a season at the Senior Open at Royal Porthcawl.

The 51-year-old, who has already won the Senior PGA Championship and the Senior US Open, carded a one-over par 72 during the first round in Wales.

That leaves him seven shots behind German Bernhard Langer, who is in the driving seat on six-under and two shots ahead of second-placed American Bob Tway.

Monty said: "This has never really been my sort of course, if I'm honest with you.

"If I was to be brutally honest, I don't have a very good record in the Open Championship. Although I was second once.

"But I do prefer the American style of courses. This is guesswork and I'm not very good at guessing.

"So I've got to go back to the poker tables and guess a bit more and see how I go today."

Andrew Oldcorn is the top Scot after a two-under-par 69, while Kenny Hutton returned a level-par 71. Ross Drummond was one further back.

Other Scots: 75-Alastair Webster; 76-Sandy Lyle; 84-Gordon Brand jnr; 85-Nicky Gold.

Meanwhile, Scott Jamieson and Peter Whiteford are in joint second place going into today's second round of the M2M Russian Open.

Both carded six-under-par 66s in Moscow to trail England's David Horsey by one shot.

Other Scots: 67-Jack Doherty; 68-Jamie McLeary; 72-Craig Lee; 73-David Drysdale; 75-Alastair Forsyth; 78-Ted Innes Ker.