Robert MacIntyre makes fine start to PGA Championship
Thank goodness then for the sage golfing guidance of Ryan Fox. 'Have a whack and see what happens,' said the New Zealander who came into the 107th PGA Championship on the back of a maiden PGA Tour win last Sunday.
It was a decent old whack too. His four-under 67 left him one shot off the early clubhouse lead set by championship debutant, Ryan Gerard.
Luke Donald, Europe's Ryder Cup captain who is on something of a jolly at Quail Hollow this week, showed his enduring class with a 67 too.
Robert MacIntyre, meanwhile, got himself up and running with a three-under 68 on an opening day which saw Masters champion Rory McIlroy huff and puff to a three-over 74.
On the 16th – his seventh – he staggered to a double-bogey six, a score matched by his playing partners, world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, and the reigning PGA champion, Xander Schauffele.
After a scruffy kerfuffle, the world's top three players were made to look like the Three Stooges.
Scheffler, who was far from chipper by the PGA of America's decision not to adopt lift, clean and place after huge downpours earlier in the week, salvaged a two-under round. Schauffele had to settle for one-over.
Given all the hype and hysteria surrounding McIlroy in the build-up to the second men's major of the season, the rest of the field could just about fly so far under the radar they'd generate panic in the US air traffic control system.
After the epic highs of Augusta, this was something of a crash landing for McIlroy as his error strewn round at one of his happiest hunting grounds left him wheezing eight shots off the pace.
In his 13 previous appearances at Quail Hollow, he had posted nine top-10s, including four wins, and his cumulative score to par in that period was 102-under.
This wasn't his finest day at this particular office. For MacIntyre, Scotland's lone representative in the PGA of America's showpiece, this was a good shift at a place he's not very familiar with.
You could say unfamiliarity breeds contentment? Tee to green, the Oban man was as solid as the granite of McCaig's Tower. 'I think I missed two greens,' he said of a sturdy display of ball-striking.
MacIntyre, who finished eighth in last year's PGA Championship, leaked an early shot on the second when he three-putted from 25-feet but back-to-back birdies at seven and eight repaired that damage.
The Ryder Cup player, who missed the cut at the Masters last month, reeled off another brace of gains at the 14th and 15th to tuck himself in among the frontrunners.
'I've been playing superbly this year tee to green,' added the 28-year-old. 'But I'm just needing that bit of spark. I didn't get off to a great start, but I just kept at it.
'To start a major the way I have is really pleasing.'
Donald, meanwhile, was pleasantly surprised by his endeavours. The 47-year-old, who will be looking to steer Europe to more Ryder Cup glory in New York this September, posted a neatly assembled four-under card to show that the captain's able.
Donald had missed four cuts in a row coming into this week, mind you. "Obviously I've been trending,' he said with a wry chuckle.
The world No 871, who was third in the PGA Championship back in 2006, hit the opening tee-shot of the championship and successfully negotiated his way round a 7,626-yard course he described as a 'brute.' As a short-hitter, it was all that.
'Bogey-free in a major is very pleasing,' Donald said after getting up and down from a bunker on the 18th to avoid any blemishes.
'Someone just told me it was the lowest first round in a major I've had since 2004 or something. This was a pleasant surprise. I got off to a really nice, steady start. I hit a bunch of fairways on the front nine which always makes me feel good about my game.
'I'm here only because I'm captain of the European Ryder Cup team. I wouldn't be in this field otherwise. It's a nice invitation and a perk that the Ryder Cup captain gets.'
Early leader Gerard mounted a thrilling back nine surge and birdied the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th before picking up an eagle on the 16th as he fortified his position at the top.
A pair of bogeys to finish, however, was something of an anti-climax.
You could say the same about McIlroy's day too.
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