As fraught scrambles go, Local Final Qualifying for the Open Championship can be a bit like the Boxing Day sales.

A place in the game's most celebrated major was lying seductively on the shelf and a cast of hundreds gathered at the crack of dawn to elbow, bite and barge their way to the front of the queue in the hope of picking up the ultimate bargain.

For one day only, East Lothian was like a golfing mall as the doors of opportunity swung open. They would swing shut in Colin Montgomerie's face but there were plenty of happy Scottish shoppers as Grant Forrest, Lloyd Saltman and George Murray all marched on to Muirfield while the Edinburgh-based Welshman Gareth Wright also survived the skirmish.

With four courses, 36 holes, 288 players and only 12 qualifying spots in total up for grabs, Gullane, North Berwick, Dunbar and Musselburgh were the settings for the kind of blazing shoot-outs that would have made the Gunfight at the OK Coral resemble a playful stooshie with water pistols. There would be countless casualties on a typically Scottish summer's day of rain, wind and a brooding sky that was as dull as a lecture on the history of dust.

Andrew Oldcorn, the former PGA champion, had begun his challenge with a steady, level-par 71 but hirpled off after eight holes of round two as the aches and pains began to increase in the general sogginess. "My back was starting to hurt, I've a sore knee and the bad weather's done it for me really," he lamented. He sounded like the increasingly flustered golf writers trying to keep track of affairs on all four fronts.

Of course, the man they had all come to see was Monty. From a spectator's point of view, LFQ, as it's known in these acronym-driven times, makes for a genteel viewing experience where you can amble freely down the fairways without being hindered and obstructed by ropes, vast armies of photographers, TV cameramen and over-zealous marshalls.

Given that he can usually hear a butterfly break wind at 400 paces, Montgomerie, who made 21 consecutive Open appearances but has not played in the championship since 2010, may not have been too enamoured by this up close and personal environment but he was in carnival mood as he opened his assault and he gave the watching throng plenty to mull over. Having just arrived back from the USA the previous night, after sharing ninth place on his debut among the golden oldies in the Senior Players' Championship at the weekend, the swift turnaround could easily have taken a toll on this 50-year-old, but three birdies in his first five holes gave him renewed vigour.

By the time he had completed 12 holes, the big man was five under and on a roll. His bid for one of the three Open tickets was motoring along nicely but the wheels began to shoogle with bogeys at 13, 14, 16 and 17. Despite a birdie putt of 15 feet on the 18th in a two-under 69, the face and the shoulders were beginning to crumple towards half mast and the mood would become increasingly sombre during the second round.

An average splash-out from the greenside bunker on the eighth led to him thundering the offending club back into the bag before he turned round and booted the rake into the sand pit. The silence was so tense that even that aforementioned butterfly was trying desperately to control its flatulence. In the end, a weary 76 for 145 meant he slithered down the field while the assembled scribblers steeled themselves to approach him in the same tentative way as you would edge towards a sleeping lion.

There would be no startled roar and savage bite, though. "Five-under and I threw it away; I played very badly," he groaned in a resigned, downbeat assessment before beating a glum retreat.

Things were far more upbeat at the other venues where Scottish success stories began to unfold. At Dunbar, the reigning Scottish Amateur champion Forrest, who lives just across the dyke from Muirfield in the Archerfield estate, reeled off rounds of 67 and 65 for an eight-under 132 and topped the standings from India's Shiv Kapur and John Wade of Australia to set up an Open debut in what is just about his own backyard. "I still can't believe I've made it into Muirfield," said a stunned Forrest, who turned 20 a fortnight ago.

Saltman, another local lad who was the leading amateur in the 2005 Open at St Andrews and qualified for the 2009 championship at Turnberry, eased through at Musselburgh with a brace of 68s for 136 to finish three behind the leading qualifier Steve Tiley. "I've been driving past Muirfield every day and watching the stands go up so I really wanted to make it this year," he said.

There was late-night drama at North Berwick as Murray, who birdied 17 and eagled 18 in a course-record 64, joined Wright and David Higgins in a play-off for the final two places there. It was Irishman Higgins who succumbed when he was penalised two strokes after it was discovered that he had 15 clubs in the bag.

Jamie McLeary missed out on the play-off by a single shot while, back at Gullane, Glenbervie amateur Fraser Moore, playing in the very last match, spilled five shots on his closing six holes to fall just a stroke short of an Open place. It can be a tough old game. Just ask Monty.