Friday was a day of slumped shoulders and outbursts for Colin Montgomerie, who is just seven shots off the lead.

Colin Montgomerie should be at home here, a bloke among friends.

He has a background in links golf, having swung a club for the first time at Royal Troon, where his father was secretary of the club. A Scotsman, he lives in England, which is, after all, part of the British empire. And he absolutely dominates European golf, and has for the past six years.

But put him in the British Open, and Monty's like an American eating haggis, wearing shorts at a Scottish beach and trying to drive a manual transmission. One word: miserable.

Montgomerie appeared about as comfortable as a bird flying into the gale Friday at Carnoustie Golf Links. He snapped at a fan on the third hole, then let a camera crew have it at the fourth, cranky and crabby as only Monty can be. Did he know more bad golf was coming, or was he looking for an excuse?

Another British Open appears lost for Montgomerie, who shot 5-over-par 76, then pronounced himself out of contention, even though he's just seven shots back of France's Jean Van de Velde.

A player of Monty's caliber should not be afraid of Van de Velde, the winner of a single tournament in his European Tour career. Argentina's Angel Cabrera shouldn't scare him, either. Throw them out, and Monty is just five shots back of Jesper Parnevik in an Open Championship that defies description.

Yet there was Monty pouting afterward, throwing in the towel when there's 36 holes of grueling golf ahead in conditions that make the outcome far from predictable.

"I'm out of the tournament now and I look forward to the U.S. PGA," he said, referring to the next major championship, the PGA Championship at Medinah. "I just didn't play very well. Simple as that. I look forward to the next major."

You'd think Monty couldn't wait to get out of here, a sad state for a player who is among a short list of best to have never won a major championship. He's lost in playoffs for both the U.S. Open and PGA Championship and contended at The Masters. He's typically ranked among the favorites at any big tournament.

But his lack of success at home is stunning. Until he won last weekend's Loch Lomond in Glasgow, he had never won a professional event in Scotland. And can it be coincidence that his record in the British Open is so poor?

In nine previous appearances, Montgomerie has just one top-10, an eighth at Turnberry in 1994. He's missed five cuts, including three of the past four. For a man who has 20 victories on the European Tour -- including three this year -- and six consecutive money titles, the lack of success in the biggest championship of the year can only be analyzed by a higher power.

Perhaps his history should not automatically mean success. Montgomerie is a high-ball hitter whose shots are not suited to these winds. Although he holds the Carnoustie course record of 64 shot during the 1995 Scottish Open, he shot 81 in the same competition a year later.

And Montgomerie was actually raised in Yorkshire, England at a course called Ilkley, which is anything but a links layout. He attended the University of Houston on a golf scholarship, and when he returned home to England, he suddenly had more of a Scottish accent than when he left.

Just one more reason to rankle the English, who view him as a whiner. Monty is quick to criticize the media over here, yet his own candor is often what gets him in trouble. Then, on a bad day such as Friday, he barely utters a word.

"I'm just playing for numbers unfortunately now, and I was very disappointed with today's performance," he said. "It wasn't a difficult day. I got a great draw and didn't capitalize on it. I got no luck today and didn't play well either, so these two things together added up to 76."

Everybody got a good chuckle earlier in the week when the Scottish Sun, a tabloid known for sensationalism, ran this screaming headline: "If Monty had (Bernhard) Langer's brain he'd have won six majors by now."

Perhaps there was some truth to the rubbish.

Bob Harig, who covers golf for the St. Petersburg Times, writes a column every Tuesday for ESPN Golf Online.