Ernie Els has dismissed Colin Montgomerie's criticism of his decision to skip the season-ending Volvo Masters, suggesting the Scot is merely shooting his mouth off.

Els yesterday came under fire from Montgomerie who implied that the European Order of Merit meant little to the South African, who has opted to play at the Barclays Singapore Open this week rather than competing at Valderrama.

But after completing his opening round at the big money tournament in Singapore on Thursday, Els hit back at the eight-time Order of Merit winner.

"Well, you know where it's coming from, so it's no surprise," said the world number four of Montgomerie's accusations. "He obviously wants to make some noise and some news for himself so I take it with a grain of salt coming from him."

Els, who is in the middle of a three-year contract with Barclays to play at the lucrative Asian Tour event, implied Montgomerie's comments may have come about because the Scot had not also been invited to play in Singapore.

"If he asked me what the real issue is, he'd also understand," he said. "He's an international player himself. He didn't get in this week so now he's shooting his mouth off, so that's fine."

Els, who lost to Adam Scott in a sudden-death play-off at last year's tournament, carded a one-over-par 72 in his opening round to trail clubhouse leader Gavin Flint of Australia by six strokes.