The five-time major winner was disqualified for signing for an incorrect score after refusing to accept a one-stroke penalty for slow play.

The 46-year-old then called a press conference in which he alleged tour officials were out to get him because of his membership of the so-called ‘Gang of Four’ who complained about how the tour was being run.

Ballesteros claimed the Seve Trophy – a Ryder Cup-style competition between teams from Europe and Great Britain and Ireland – would not survive because the tour’s executive director Ken Schofield was against it as the tour “don’t have any piece of the cake”.

The former European number one also said he was ready to quit the tour he has graced for 30 years to play in America, but Montgomerie feels that will not happen.

“It would be a shame to lose Seve,” said Montgomerie.

“Obviously he is upset and I’m sure he’ll go home and have a think and come back again.

“We all unfortunately have to play by the rules and if he’s over time, he’s over time. I know he feels hard done by but we all do when we’ve had a bad time.

“I had a bad time once when I was playing with Tiger (Woods) in the last round of the Masters in 1997. We were last off and I was holding up nobody, just the greenkeepers, and I got a bad time on the 15th.

“I put my shot in a horrible position and took too long to play it and got a bad time, the only one I’ve ever had.

“We all have these rules and we all have to abide by them. They are quite tough but we have to get round, and I feel that John Paramor (European Tour’s chief referee) did exactly the right thing.”