'At one point, it was about getting round under 90'

Venue: Royal Troon Dates: Thu 18-Sun 21 July

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Bob MacIntyre's first shot of the day at Royal Troon went right. So did his second.

His third was straight... Straight into a bunker. His fourth, according to the stats, travelled less than a yard and was still sitting in the sand.

Attempts five, six and seven grimly followed before he could walk off the first.

The Scot's mind must have been scrambled as he clambered up to the second tee.

A few minutes - and another visit to a greenside trap - later, a bogey was scrawled on his card. Then another, after he found a fairway bunker on the third.

Five over after three. Six over for the tournament.

An hour earlier, he would have had designs on crashing the leaderboard. Now the cut line was his biggest concern.

Still, at least it couldn't get any worse for MacIntyre. Couldn't it, aye..?

Another tee shot went right on the par-five fourth. Another ball had to be fished out of the bag. But finally, some good fortune. The first drive was found.

One ugly swipe later, it had moved four yards and was now unplayable.

MacIntyre dropped, hacked at it again, but contrived to spray it into the bad stuff on the other side. Then another lash. More rough.

Eventually, he fished the ball from the hole having taken an eight. Eight over after four. Nine over for the tournament.

Five days after the best day of his career, when he claimed the Scottish Open title, he was eye-balling one of the worst. "Carnage" he called it.

"I was staring a 90 in the face," MacIntyre said. "When I made that eight on four, my head was completely gone. You could see me getting angrier and angrier."

At that stage, MacIntyre might have been forgiven for turning to playing partners Tommy Fleetwood and John Rahm and saying 'enough of this caper, lads, I'm done'.

But instead, he somehow found the resolve to not only find his shape again, but to begin repairing the damage.

"[Caddy] Mike [Burrow] managed to talk some sense into me and make me realise I hadn't played that badly but was shooting gazillions," MacIntyre explained.

"Once we calmed down, it was about getting it under 90, then under 80, and we started hitting good shots."

Nine over became eight. Then seven. Another birdie at 15 came just as the cut line moved out a stroke to six over.

Suddenly, with a sniff of prolonging his week's work in his nostrils, MacIntyre skelped his drive over the burn at 16 and walked off another shot better off.

An up-and-down at 17 and another par down the last sealed the deal and had him puffing out his cheeks and looking to the sky as he ambled to the recorder's tent.

"A year ago, I'd have been gone and in my car and up the road. But my attitude has been superb the last 12-15 weeks," MacIntyre said.

"I've got nothing to lose now. My weather app says there's going to be heavy rain in the afternoon, so I'll just throw everything at it and see what happens."

Two other home hopefuls will be in a similar scenario after Calum Scott and Ewan Ferguson also did enough earlier in the day.

Ferguson, out first in the more benign conditions, birdied 18 to grind his way to a doughty 73 and a five-over total.

Scott, meanwhile, also found a birdie down the stretch in a 75 that left him as the leading Scot - and top amateur - at four-over.

"The Silver Medal would probably be the intention," said the 20-year-old from Nairn. "But I think two good scores and we can move up that leaderboard."