What a difference a few days make.
Last Friday at Castle Stuart, Richie Ramsay trudged in with a 78 to miss the cut at the Scottish Open and muttered and mumbled through clenched teeth that he should try a different form of employment. He sounded a bit like a weary golf journalist at this time of the year.
Ramsay has always been an emotional, heart-on-the-sleeve kind of man and his rasping response to that early exit was certainly not the first time the Aberdonian had made a verbal knee-jerk reaction. Yesterday at Muirfield, Ramsay was his chatty self again as he continued his build-up to the Open. All the anguish and pent-up frustration had been forgotten.
"I shouldn't talk to reporters," quipped the Aberdonian when confronted by the same gaggle of greetin'-faced scribblers again. "I forgot about that round pretty quickly. You speak to guys after a round and you give a more realistic answer. There are a lot of PC answers you can give if you just took half an hour to sit down and take yourself out of it."
Last year at Royal Lytham, Ramsay was in an equally thunderous mood after missing the cut in the Open but clawed himself out of the pit of despair to win the Omega European Masters in Switzerland not long after.
"I know I can come back from it," confessed the two-time tour champion. "It's just a matter of doing all the things I need to do. Going to the gym, putting in the practice and just being right mentally and going out and playing.It's funny. You break it down and it's not that hard. If you go to the gym, prepare well, practice and be in a good place mentally, pretty much you play well."
One thing continues to niggle, though. The hip injury he picked up over a month ago is still causing some concerns. "I went out at 7.15 and I played nine holes but the hip was feeling a bit tight again, so I thought it better to come in and hold fire a little bit," he admitted. "It's not that serious, it's just something I keep my eye on. It's a bit of wear and tear. If it needed an operation I wouldn't be playing. It's the left hip, and it's just a bit mental to be honest. It's more mental, you're scared going on to the left side."
Hip issues aside, Ramsay is relishing the formidable challenge of Muirfield. There's little room for error on this revered patch of golfing terrain and, given that he ranks second on the European Tour's driving accuracy stats, the methodical plotting that will be required this week is something the former US Amateur champion believes can use to his advantage.
"This course suits me fine," he enthused. "Last week [at Castle Stuart] you could miss the fairway and get away with it. If it was like this [Muirfield] every week it would be great for me.
"The great thing about the Open is that it doesn't suit one type of player. It suits the best player. It's not a putting competition or a driving competition. Hitting it long does help but so does getting it on the fairway on a course like this. It could give me an advantage here."
Ramsay's fellow Scot, Martin Laird, is also looking to take advantage this week and build on the momentum of his fifth place at the Scottish Open. For the American-based Laird, getting back to the various dunts, dinks and decisions that come with links golf has always taken a bit of getting used to but Castle Stuart was a real step in the right direction.
The changes to his swing that he made at the start of the year are beginning to bed in and the three-time PGA Tour champion is upbeat heading into his fifth Open Championship. After something of an alarming slide down the world rankings, Laird, for so long Scotland's leading player, has reclaimed that position . . . just.
As Laird slid down the order during last season, the rejuvenated Paul Lawrie was upwardly mobile and became Scotland's top-ranked golfer around this time last year. Lawrie has struggled to recapture that form in the new campaign and now finds himself 50th on the standings, one place below his climbing countryman Laird. "I don't pay too much attention to being Scottish No.1, to be honest," said the world No 49. "I'm more concerned about getting higher up in the top 50 than who's ahead of me or who's behind me from Scotland. Going through a swing change I knew it was going to take some time and obviously I was going in the wrong direction in the world rankings initially after that. But I now really feel those changes are starting to pay dividends and I felt on Sunday at Castle Stuart that I hit some shots that I never had in my locker before. I've come here feeling comfortable about playing links golf again."
A year ago at Lytham, Laird slumped to an 82 on day three, plummeted to last place and ended up hurtling through the closing round himself. "You never want to be out in a single on the Sunday, especially in the Open," he admitted. "I'm hoping I've got a nice long lie this Sunday waiting for a late tee time.
Watch this space.
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