IT didn’t matter where on the golfing globe Scott Henry travelled too, he just couldn’t make a cut. South Africa, India, Qatar, Sicily? You name it, Henry missed it.

“This game is torture,” conceded Henry of this Royal & Ancient pursuit which can often be as agonising as being flogged with the cat o’ nine tails. 

“There was a lot of mental scarring.” 

After 14 successive early exits this season, Henry’s mangled mind must have felt as if a horse-drawn plough had been dragged across his brain.

A share of 12th in last weekend’s BMW International Open got the sizeable monkey off his back and, on home soil this week, Henry is looking for something of a Highland fling in the SSE Scottish Hydro Challenge at Macdonald Spey Valley in Aviemore. 

A supreme teenage talent during his all-conquering amateur days, when he dominated the domestic junior scene before stepping up to win the Scottish Men’s Open Strokeplay title, Henry’s undoubted potential has not been fully realised in the cut-and-thrust of the pro scene. 

You don’t need to remind the 30-year-old of that and his struggles during the first few months of his first season back on the main European Tour since 2013 only hammered home the point. 

“There was a low point,” Henry said as he reflected on what would be his seventh missed cut in a row back in March. 

“I was down in South Africa and had shot four or five-under in the first round but then was four or five-over in round two and I missed the cut by a shot. I just lost my head in the second round. I’m not saying I was crying, but there were definitely tears in my eyes.

“But it’s not been just this season. It has been a long time that I’ve thought ‘what the hell am I doing?’ How can I have the game I have and all the ability I know I’ve got and still be underperforming so much?”

While seeking some mental pokes and prods from a sports psychologist, Henry has also taken on board the coaching nous of Alan McCloskey over the past couple of months. 

At 30, Henry still has plenty of golfing life left in him but he is at the age when he can look back and mull over the what-ifs and the what-might-have-beens. There’s time to make amends, though.

“What Alan said when I first started with him was quite depressing to hear,” admitted Henry, who has had to step down to the second-tier Challenge Tour this week as his ranking didn’t get him into the lucrative French Open. 

“He said if I’d gone to him at 17 or 18, he would just have worked on my basics and let me play because I had a game that nobody else at that age around me really had. 

“It was funny as my dad had said that to me at that age and I was telling him to shut up. I guess you get fed too much information at times, and when you’re young and a bit more vulnerable, you soak it up. I feel like I’ve got the right people beside me now. Last week’s result isn’t ultimately what I’m aspiring to but it’s a massive step.”

On the subject of striding out, Chase Koepka has a few sizeable footsteps to follow in as he looks to take inspiration from his major-winning big brother, Brooks, who landed the US Open recently. 

Given his elder sibling’s extraordinary exploits since he won this very title here in Aviemore back in 2013, Chase may be tempted to re-name himself Wheeze due the catch-up job he has on his hands but the 23-year-old is happy to plot out his own route to the top. 

Like his big brother, Koepka is looking to make his mark in the European game and he is slowly finding his feet on the Challenge Tour with a couple of top-five finishes on the circuit this season.

Having blasted a course-record 62 en route to that 2013 victory, Brooks holds a special place in Spey Valley’s short history. His mark on the wider Challenge Tour scene – he won four times in the space of a year – also gives his younger brother constant reminders of his conquests. 

“I sent him a message yesterday saying ‘I feel like everywhere I go to, you have a course record’,” added Chase with a smile. “He has left his foot prints on the tour and they are certainly big foot prints, but I don’t mind. 

“I had such a warm welcome when I came to Aviemore last year. Everyone speaks so highly of my brother, telling me stories of when they watched him play and how he shot that lovely 62. 

“I get reminded of it every time I walk into the clubhouse too.”

Bouncing about Europe has certainly be an eye-opening experience for Koepka but, like his brother before him, the man from the sunshine state of Florida is enjoying the various delights.

“The third round at Q-School was so windy and so cold. I was thinking Spain was going to be warm but it wasn’t on that day.”

Brace yersel’ for Aviemore, Chase.