Sit your driving test or play in the Open? As life dilemmas go, it’s not exactly one to get stuck on the horns of.
Unsurprisingly, Bradley Neil decided against having his mirror-signal-manoeuvre capabilities put under the judgment of a DVLA examiner in Forfar.
When the young Blairgowrie golfer remarked: “I think you’ve got to put that on hold for something as massive as this,” there was your winner for understatement of the year.
The teenager’s week so far has entailed playing a round with the world No 1 Adam Scott, then nine holes with man of the moment Justin Rose. And then there was an early morning 18 with two of the elder statesmen of Scottish golf, Paul Lawrie and Stephen Gallacher, on Wednesday.
All that before the competition gets under way on Thursday with a three-ball in the company of Matteo Manassero and Miko Ilonen.
So you can see why hill-starts and reversing round a corner weren’t at the forefront of Neil’s mind.
He added: “You can’t exactly phone up the R&A and ask them to put this back a week! It’s easy enough to get my money back from the DVLA I can’t refund my place at the Open for next year though.
“I also had a holiday planned with my girlfriend’s family this week. I was supposed to be going to Portugal on Thursday but I have had to put that back as well.
“I will go out and join them for the last half, but the good thing is they completely understand.”
By first-round tee-time, Neil will have his game face on but you can forgive the 18-year-old a bit of star-spotting in the meantime.
“It’s incredible to be here,” he said. “You’ve got to try and treat it like any other tournament but it’s not. It would normally be guys like Grant Forrest and Graeme Robertson (Scottish amateur team-mates) I’m walking past. Here it’s Adam Scott and Tiger Woods.
“I was like ‘hold on, hold on, there’s Tiger, let’s just stop and watch him walk past’. Everyone wants to see what he’s doing. I want to see him too. I’m meant to be playing but I’d sooner stop and watch him play.
“Back in 2006, when Tiger won here, I was probably competing in a junior medal somewhere. Actually, we were probably crowded around the TV watching him.
“I remember going up to the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond. I was always the wee kid with my hat out, shouting: ‘Gimme a ball, gimme a ball!’
“A few months ago I was looking through some stuff in my room and I found a whole bunch of notepads with different signatures, Lee Westwood and guys like that.
“I remember my brother actually paying to get Tiger’s autograph. I think he gave a kid a tenner for it! Hopefully I’ll get his autograph for free this week.
“I might need to pinch myself here. It’s incredible to think I got in and much earlier than I ever thought.
“Everything seems a bit surreal right now and I don’t think I will ever come down from cloud nine until all of it is over and I play my way into this event as a professional.”
The day that the world No 1 asked to play with him is one Neil will never forget.
“I was only supposed to be playing with Paul Dunne, who is an Irish amateur, and Shane Lowry,” he said.
“But as I was standing on the tee watching Darren Clarke tee off, I saw Steve Williams coming through the tunnel towards us.
“He knows Shane obviously a lot better than us two guys and said: ‘Is it ok if I join up with you?’ We were like: ‘You’re the world No 1. You can do whatever you want!’
“When I told Adam after six holes I won the amateur, he actually said sorry to me! He was very apologetic because he didn’t know.
“He said he should have known why I was here. That was incredible. He said to me I have a great year ahead of me.
“I asked him,, if I do get an invite to the Masters, it would be incredible to get a game with him and he said ‘no problem’ and gave me all his details.
“He is just such a genuine guy. He has so much experience with Steve Williams on the bag, who was with Tiger when he won here the last time, and speaking to them has got to help massively.”
For an 18-year-old amateur, Neil has more experience of professional tournament golf than most.
As a late replacement for Huey Lewis, he was Peter Uhlein’s playing partner in the Dunhill Links for four rounds. And the fact that they finished runner-up in the team competition says everything about how he took to it.
It’s a week that should stand him in good stead for this one at Royal Liverpool.
He said: “At the Dunhill, I almost felt like I really shouldn’t be there, that I should just let these guys get on with it. Stuff like that will help me loads to get a feel for things this week.
“Obviously playing practice rounds with guys like Adam Scott will help too. He brings a big crowd even for practice rounds, a lot of attention to the group. It’s great to deal with that early on and see what it’s like.
“I was a bit more comfortable in the Dunhill because it was just the amateur side of things for me. This week, I’m competing for myself. I will be a lot more excited here than I was at the Dunhill. It’s the Open Championship.”
He went on: “Guys like Tiger know they can win. I’m just thinking it would be awesome to win. I’m just trying to play good golf and see where I end up. Making the cut would be incredible. If I play well, hopefully I can make it comfortably.
“In amateur tournaments, I’m getting more and more confident that if I play good golf I’ll be near the top of the leaderboard but I don’t know where my good golf will put me this week.
“I hope I play well enough to see where that is. To win the Silver Medal (for leading amateur) would be a dream come true.”
Neil has done his Hoylake homework, taking advantage of an opportunity to play the course the week after his British Amateur win in Portrush and he’ll be tailoring his game to suit the surroundings.
“I’ve got to take note of what Tiger did in 2006 and I’m sure two iron will be a well-used club as well this week.
“My plan will be to be in good position to approach the greens.
“Driving is one of my strengths. I’ve been practising a lot with it to see where my driver limits are, and where it runs out of fairway.
“Playing in amateur competitions on Open venues, and playing well on them, gives me a lot of confidence this week.”