Little did we know what the Open Championship draw would throw up when we left Russell Knox in Gullane on Sunday evening after a summing up about his Scottish Open campaign and a quick peek ahead to Carnoustie.
When the Scottish golf writers got across to Angus yesterday, the first round tee-times for this week’s showpiece were out. And there was an eye-catching three-ball at 3.21pm on Thursday.
Tiger Woods, Hideki Matsuyama . . . and Russell Knox. Cue a frantic hunt about on the range to find the Scot? Not quite. His manager informed the masses that Knox would be taking the day off and wouldn’t be around for a blether.
It was understandable and Knox had already made his plans for a day of rest clear after the Scottish Open following a gruelling run of events.
The reaction to playing with Woods, and his thoughts on the general circus that will accompany it, will have to wait.
After a closing 75 at Gullane, which scuppered his push for back-to-back wins after success in the Irish Open the previous weekend, Knox wasn’t too down beat.
“I’m actually delighted I played terribly on Sunday as it knocks me down to reality to be honest,” he said in the immediate aftermath. “Now I can really hit the reset button and get on with it next week.
“Sunday took nothing out of me, playing that badly. So I can just rest up the next couple of days and recharge. With the amount of golf I’ve played recently, I think if I went out to Carnoustie and prepared like a madman I’d just be running myself into the ground.
“It has worked for me in the past, but there is no right preparation. You can play 18 holes a day for a month and shoot 82 the first round. There’s no magic recipe, you just need a bit of luck . . . and good play.
“My goal is to have my best major finish. I came tied 12th in the US Open a few weeks ago and the target is to beat that.”
While Knox can look forward to a marquee grouping, his fellow Scot, Sandy Lyle, will get the 147th championship underway on Thursday by clattering the opening tee-shot at 6.35am.
This week’s affair will be the 1985 champion’s 43rd and, most likely, last appearance in golf’s most cherished major. At the age of 60, Lyle’s past champion exemption runs out. He could always win it again – or at least get a top-10 – to get another crack at it? Now that would be a story.
There’s maybe one encouraging omen for Lyle to cling to. The last time an Open course was playing as firm and as fast as Carnoustie is this week was at Muirfield in 2013. And that was the last time Lyle made the cut in the championship.
He will be joined on the dawn patrol by Germany’s double major winner Martin Kaymer and English Ryder Cup player Andy Sullivan.
Jordan Spieth begins his title defence in the company of Justin Rose and Kiradech Aphibarnrat at 9.58am while Rory McIlroy, the champion at Hoylake in 2014, is off at 12.53pm alongside Thorbjorn Olesen of Denmark and Australia’s Marc Leishman, who was beaten in a play-off in 2015.
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