It is highly unlikely it will be this year, but Russell Knox has backed himself to be an Open championship contender.
The Inverness man believes he possesses the type of game that, allied to some more major experience, will stand him in good stead for the test this unique tournament provides.
Indeed, his self-belief is well-placed on the evidence of yesterday’s gutsy one under par 70 that left the 31-year-old level par and comfortably above the cut line.
Asked if he has a big Open in him, Knox replied: “Absolutely.
“I love links golf. I’ve not played all of the courses on the rota but if I can have a good career I’ll fancy my chances in a couple of these.
“I miss this type of golf (when he’s playing in America) in a weird kind of a sick way. It makes it so hard for everyone when it’s like that and I think I do well in those sort of conditions.
“They were very hard today. The only good thing was it wasn’t cold.
“When it started raining for our hardest holes round the turn it was tough. It was absolutely chucking it down on 11 – which is a good hole for it to be raining on!
“It was pretty steady rain from the seventh and eighth onwards.
“But I was proud of how I hung in and I’m quite happy with my score.”
A lot of “weird things” happened to Knox on Thursday, such as a holed wedge for eagle being followed by a double-bogey, but there wasn’t the same drama in round two.
“It was a lot more normal out there,” he said. “I still had a couple of lip-outs but it was a day when it could easily gone south.”
It could have “gone south” after the second hole, when Knox dropped an early stroke.
He said: “I kept telling myself that I’m swinging great, I’m hitting the shots where I’m looking and I’m hitting good putts that just aren’t going in.
“So I kept going.”
Last year was the world number 26’s first Open, and this year his first cut successfully negotiated.
“Everybody hates missing cuts but I think I hate it more,” Knox added. “I pride myself on making cuts and I’ve always been like that. In the last year I think I’ve made something like 80% of cuts. That’s pretty good.
“After bogeying 17 it was nice to stand up and hit a good tee shot down 18. Those are the moments that you need to have to make cuts or win tournaments. It’s the same type of feeling.
“Obviously I’m going to be miles back (from the leaders) so I’ll need one really good round but it might be in me.”
One home player of whom better Open championships have been expected, Marc Warren, had a dreadful week.
His Open best is tied-39th and this year was his second missed cut in four starts.
Warren – a former top 50 in the world performer – was down at 175 in the rankings before this week began, and will fall further after two miserable rounds at Troon.
Yesterday’s 76 followed an opening round 77 and left him 11 over par for the week.
Sandy Lyle has long since ceased to be a serious contender at this level. His 78 was an improvement on an 85 on Thursday but he was still the back-marker for the field by some distance.
Richie Ramsay was in with a fighting chance of making the cut after his opening round but missed out (just) on five over.
Of the Troon Scots, only Knox and Warren were on the advantageous side of the draw, and Ramsay believes that has to be a mitigating factor for his own premature exit.
“It was easily the toughest side of the draw,” he said. “We played the loop and I hit a five-iron on 12 which went nowhere. I had 173 to the pin and barely got 150 out of it.
“We were playing into the wind on the front and you were looking for it to be easier on the back nine but the wind turned around. As it had been raining and you get a field going through it, the greens weren’t as pure as in the morning.
“It is going to be difficult to analyse where I went wrong but there were external factors this week, such as the draw. You have to be harsh but fair on yourself, which is sometimes difficult to do.
“The other guys definitely had it much easier, especially yesterday. I was expecting the scoring to go the other way but it came back.
“That is what the Open is about. Some weeks you are going to get it in your favour like last week at Castle Stuart.”
Ramsay believes the second half of the year can be a productive one for him.
“My goal now is to win again and get a slightly better mental attitude,” he said. “I want to be more aggressive on the course. I need to be more decisive by picking the target rather than worrying about the miss.
“I don’t know why I am like this but my mum and my nan are worriers and I’ve got the gene where I focus too much on the miss.
“On my scorecards I don’t have enough birdies on it. I have a lot of pars. I know to win golf tournaments you need to finish 14 or 15 under so you need to play aggressive and sacrifice some greens and try to get up and down to give yourself a better chance of making a birdie.
“It’s not far away. I just can’t be too down on myself as I feel I played alright even though I missed the cut.”
For much of the afternoon it was looking as if it would be one Scot playing golf on Saturday and Sunday but the late in the day shifting cut-line brought Paul Lawrie and Colin Montgomerie back in as two of the grateful four over par men.
