With Paul Casey missing the cut and Thomas Bjorn off the pace after four-putting the 17th, Denmark's Soren Kjeldsen is the only other European Tour winner currently in the top 10 and Montgomerie is hoping his experience will tell over the final two rounds.

Asked if his presence on the leaderboard sounded an ominous warning to the other players, Montgomerie said: “Provided I get off to a good start tomorrow then yes, it definitely does.

“If I can be two under after four or five and start pressing then it counts. There is no point in doing this today and then backing off tomorrow.”

Starting from the 10th, the 42-year-old Scot birdied the 12th and 17th and, after a run of seven straight pars, picked up further shots at the seventh and ninth.

The eight-time European number one felt that final birdie was like “picking up a shot and a half on the field” on possibly the hardest hole on the course, but was not entirely satisfied after seeing a number of other chances slip away on the tricky greens.

“I played very well tee to green but missed a number of putts,” the 42-year-old Scot said. “All the greens have a lot of grain in them – apart from the two new ones – and I haven’t quite got the pace right yet.

“It’s always nice to not to drop a shot but to only shoot four under was disappointing from the way, and how close, I hit the ball.

“That should have been a very, very low round if I had taken the putts that I should normally take. At 6,722 yards this is one of the shortest courses we play all year so you can go low round here.

“It’s disappointing in a lot of ways but at least it has given me the opportunity to score low tomorrow and get into contention on Saturday night.”

Montgomerie admits he almost followed Padraig Harrington in making a late withdrawal from the event at the end of an exhausting season.

He has played 27 events around the world before arriving in Hong Kong, and flies from the Far East to California next week to play in Tiger Woods’ invitational event. During his seven years as European number one from 1993-99, he averaged 19 events a season.

This is already the third event of the 2006 European Tour schedule, but Montgomerie added: “It does feel like the end of the year rather than the third event of the season. But if I was level par or one under I would feel a lot more tired. A 66 helps with fatigue in many ways.”

Gibson – a member of Canada’s winning Dunhill Cup team back in 1994 – added a second-round 66 to his opening 65 to lead on nine under par, the 44-year-old finishing one shot ahead of former American Walker Cup player Edward Loar with Sweden’s Martin Erlandsson a shot further back in third.

England’s Andrew Butterfield, who finished fourth on the Challenge Tour in 2005 to regain his playing rights for this season, carded a 65 to move to six under.

The 33-year-old from Bromley was 10th at halfway in last week’s Volvo China Open but slipped back to joint 58th with two rounds of 75 over the weekend.

“I’m just continuing from where I left off last season so I’m delighted,” said Butterfield, who had two second places on the Challenge Tour. “Hopefully this time I can put four rounds together rather than two like last week.

“This course suits me a little better than last week so hopefully I will be a bit happier on Sunday this time.”

Defending champion Miguel Angel Jimenez – looking to become the first player to successfully defend the title – is four under after a 67, two ahead of Bjorn who four-putted the 17th for double bogey, his last three putts coming from inside three feet.

Casey, winner of the China Open on Sunday, improved by six shots on his opening 74 but missed the cut by a single shot on two over par. Fellow Englishman Nick Dougherty birdied his final hole to make the cut on the mark.