At the precise moment Bradley Neil rolled a putt into a bunker on Royal Liverpool’s fifth hole, motoring around the Angus countryside performing emergency stops and three-point turns probably did not seem like such a bad idea.
The Thursday morning anguish he was suffering would have been much worse than anything a DVLA examiner could have inflicted upon him had he gone through with his driving test this week rather than put it off to play in golf’s biggest and oldest tournament.
In golfing terms the L-plates are still on the Blairgowrie star-in-the-making.
A compare and contrast between the current British Amateur champion and the one of five years ago, who was his playing partner yesterday, was an inevitable one.
And the example Matteo Manassero set has shown Neil the standard he wants to attain. Fairways and greens hit, putts dropping, chances taken.
Those were the differences between posting a score that has the Italian near the very top of the leaderboard (five under), and the Scot needing a spectacular second round just to beat the cut (seven over).
Of course Neil wanted to make a name for himself in his first Open.
Manassero proved it was possible in 2009 when he was the young Amateur winner coming into the event bristling with confidence and in possession of a game fine-tuned to links golf.
But he was the exception, and the classy 24-year-old from Verona has advised Neil to remember the bigger picture.
Those L-plates will surely be thrown away one day. Neil is too good a player for them not to be.
But don’t expect it to be this week.
“The main thing for him is to enjoy this Open,” he said. “He’s a really good player, so he will be here again.
“This is an Open to enjoy and learn as much as he can. It’s not necessarily his Open to compete well.
“He’s got to learn a lot, and that’s what he has been doing. Today wasn’t a nice day for him. He was struggling a little bit. But he can still fight to make the cut.”
The Neil bounce-back could start today according to Manassero, who sees a low scorer in the teenager when the stars align.
“He’s a really powerful player. So he’s a player that I think when he feels everything the right way on the first tee he can shoot six, seven under. He’s that type of player.
“But yeah, he needs to learn. Like I needed to learn. Like I still need to learn.
“He’s played practice rounds with the best players in the world, and that’s a unique experience. And when he’s back here again, he’s going to be committed to having the best possible Open.”
Neil and Manassero were two young men in the same fairway bunker on the right hand side of the first hole, but from the moment they splashed out of the sand there was a fork in the fairway.
Neil actually advanced his ball further from a better lie, yet by the time he had played his second for what would become an expected two-putt bogey, the former BMW PGA champion had holed his nine-iron from 160 yards for a very unexpected no-putt birdie.
Good shot, but also good fortune. And full advantage was taken of it thereafter.
Another birdie followed at the third and there were five on the back nine as he barely put a foot wrong.
While Manassero’s 18 holes were almost entirely serene, Neil’s were somewhat more eventful.
A pushed tee shot on the second was compounded by a pulled iron approach from the rough which came to rest on a patch of grass outside the R&A members’ marquee and captain’s suite.
The captain wasn’t there to see it, but a security guard was. He clearly wasn’t a golfer though, and thought he was doing his good deed for the day by picking the ball up and handing it to the man who hit it.
Neil’s initial fear was that he had struck his shot out of bounds, and it took three marshalls to finally confirm he would be allowed to replace his ball from where the suitably embarrassed guard had lifted it.
Neil composed himself and played an impressive 60-yard pitch over a fence, rough and a bunker to only make bogey.
There were chances for birdies on three and four when fairways and greens were found, but both putts shaved the hole.
Then at the par five fifth another fairway bunker grabbed a tee shot, and by the time Neil was at the front of the green in three he had a treacherous putt up and over a ridge.
Calamity followed, as the putt was weakly struck and toppled into the bunker.
Double bogey was the upshot and Neil was at four over.
He said: “Putting into a bunker is always fun. That hole has been a birdie one for me in practice but that cost me a double bogey.
“I tried to take one the pin but I didn’t hit it hard enough and it took the wrong break and went into the bunker.
“I don’t think I’ve ever putted into a bunker before. All I could do was laugh.
“It wouldn’t have been funny to see my reaction if nobody was there though. Inside I was tearing apart but I didn’t let it show.
“I was playing on one of the biggest stages in the world and there was nowhere to hide. I could have made myself look really bad if I’d let what was happening get to me.”
The next dropped shot came at eight, when a par putt horse-shoed out. Then on nine another eight-footer was left short this time, and he was at the turn in six over.
Six became eight by 14 but the first birdie of the day arrived on 16 after Neil reached the par five in two, and there was a par finish for his 79.
Even by the time he faced the media shortly after walking off 18, Neil was starting to put his round into perspective.
“To be in that spotlight has been a learning curve and I’ll take a lot from it and move on,” he said.
“It’s about learning from the tough times. It can’t be as bad as that tomorrow.
“I hit the last four greens and finished well. I was glad to get a shot back.
“It will require something very, very special tomorrow to make the cut, and I’ve just got to try and hit fairways and greens to give myself a chance.”
For Neil, a weekend’s golf and the Silver Medal for leading amateur are now improbable, but Manassero has the look of a genuine Open contender.
“I’m very, very pleased with my round,” he said. “It’s just the perfect start to this Open championship.”