Gullane, Scotland ? Colin Montgomerie led a charge of Europeans toward the top of the leaderboard as a wet and slightly breezy Muirfield invited low scoring Friday in the second round of the British Open.

One day after virtually ruling himself out of another major, Montgomerie stirred up the Scottish gallery by posting a 7-under 64, his best round ever in a British Open to get back into contention.

Tiger Woods was 2 under for the day through nine holes and four shots out of the lead, which was held by Ernie Els after a sensational 29 on the front side.

Els, who made birdie on six of the first eight holes, was 7 under for the day before making a bogey on the 11th hole.

Resuming his bid for a Grand Slam – all four professional majors in the same year – Woods teed off without incident Friday afternoon, finding the intermediate cut of rough but still making par.

Woods picked up a birdie on the third hole and then birdied the par-5 fifth hole after hitting a 3-iron out of the rough just short of the green.

Nick Price, who birdied three of the first five holes, struggled to finish at 70 and joined Montgomerie in the clubhouse lead at 138 after two rounds at a Muirfield links that has been relatively tame without its famous wind.

“That’s a good effort to go from 3 over to 4 under,” Montgomerie said. “I’m quite happy right now. I’m in a position where I could go forward.”

Des Smyth, the 49-year-old Irishman, and Carl Pettersson of Sweden were at 5 under, while Stephen Ames of Trinidad and Soren Hansen of Denmark were another stroke back.

Montgomerie opened with a birdie and this time, he kept it going. A 35-footer curled in the cup for eagle on the fifth, and he closed out his best score in the British Open by hitting a 4-iron into 12 feet on the last hole for his seventh birdie.

Each one produced an enormous cheer, just like last year at Royal Lytham & St. Annes when he led after 36 holes. He faded badly on the weekend.

“Hopefully this year I could start with a terrible 74 and go forward,” he said.

Phil Mickelson was going in the opposite direction.

Mickelson has always struggled in this major championship, and Muirfield was no different. Mickelson took a double bogey out of the hay, a double bogey when he tried to play a bunker shot from his knees, and he wound up with a 76.

He was at 2-over 144, and had to wait until the end of the day to see if he made the cut.

He wasn’t alone. David Toms, who opened with a 67 to tie Pettersson and Duffy Waldorf for the first-round lead, hit into a pot bunker on the first hole, took two shots to get out and made double bogey. The rest of the day wasn’t much better, and he finished with a 75 to fall back to even-par 142.

Waldorf teed off later in the afternoon.

Among those likely to miss the cut were Vijay Singh (75) and Jim Furyk (76), both at 147. They failed to take advantage of a still, wet morning at Muirfield, a day when so many others made a move.

Darren Clarke played in the same group with Toms, and made up six shots on the first five holes with two birdies and a 20-foot eagle on No. 5, when he hit 2-iron from 245 yards to reach the green on his second shot.

Clarke had a 67 and was at 3-under 139 with two former U.S. Open champions – Retief Goosen and Corey Pavin, a short hitter whose presence so high up on the leaderboard shows that Muirfield will accommodate just about any style of game.

Nick Faldo established a British Open record with a 2-under 69. It was his 34th round in the 60s, finally breaking the record he had shared with Jack Nicklaus since 1996 – that was the last time Faldo had a round in the 60s at golf’s oldest championship.

Woods was able to sleep in and hope the rain cleared because he had an afternoon tee time to resume his chase for an unprecedented Grand Slam of major tournament wins.

With Woods struggling on the greens on Thursday, and a calm Muirfield left without one of its main defenses, an odd collection of players surged past him and crowded the top of the leaderboard after the first round of the Open.

Whether they can remain in contention hinges largely on Woods’ putter – and whether the wind picked up to make the second round more of an adventure.

“I got myself where I needed to be, especially if the weather is the way it’s supposed to be the next two days,” Woods said.

Woods managed to get it under par in his opening round, which is significant only because he has gone on to win the tournament the last seven times he opened a major championship with an under-par round.

In all, nearly a fourth of the field broke par in the first round. Those who didn’t either spent too much time in the knee-high heather or struggled like Woods on greens not as fast as in the year’s two previous major championships.

“It was definitely there for the taking,” said Brad Faxon, who joined Woods at 70.

If Woods was frustrated over his putting – he needed 34 putts for the day – he wouldn’t say. What did irritate him was a photographer who clicked his camera as Woods stood over the ball on the first tee and forced him to back off.

Woods promptly hit it 20 yards right of the fairway into the knee-high heather, where he encountered the photographers again and berated them for making noise.

Woods was muttering to himself later as he kept missing putts. Not only was he not leading in his bid for the third leg of the Grand Slam, he couldn’t even beat playing partners Justin Rose and Shigeki Maruyama, who each had a 68.