It’s all the fun of the fair with Robert MacIntyre. “I’m like a roller coaster when I’m on a course,” gasped the Scot of a topsy-turvy, stomach churning ride that you’d tend to get at the theme parks up the coast at Margate. Here at Royal St George’s, MacIntyre certainly enjoyed something of a white knuckle experience.

A brave, battling inward half, finished off by a fist-pumping birdie putt on the final hole, gave the lone home hopeful in the field a one-under 69 for a one-over tally and left him right on the cut mark. The nail-nibbling could commence but MacIntyre would make it through to the weekend and ensure a seventh cut made in seven major starts.

It was a resolute display from the Oban left-hander and, even when the putts were not dropping, MacIntyre screwed his courage to the sticking place and demonstrated the fighting spirit and defiance that remains one of his great attributes.

With the pressure mounting, a fine approach to within seven feet at the 18th set up a decisive birdie which was a just reward for his patience and perseverance.

“I knew exactly what was going on, I was watching every leaderboard coming in,” he said of his fraught battle to haul himself inside the cut line. “I finally let go of everything that was going on and hit that putt on the last.

“When everything is on the line you can’t think about anything. I just had a blank head, I just putted like a kid. It was a beautiful putt.

“Patience was a big thing today. I was getting a bit agitated. You could see by my putts. I got too aggressive and started dragging them. My caddie kept saying ‘be patient, let it happen’. He must have said that about 50 times over the last six holes. We stayed patient and got our reward.

“Whether I’m playing golf or shinty it’s a never say die attitude. It’s the only way I know how to survive. If I lose that, then I lose my golf game. That’s my game; fighting.

“The heart rate is going up and down and you can see by my shots that I’m getting anxious or I’m going at things. But I loved the end there where it has to be done, when you have no option but to take the shots on. Thankfully it worked out.”

Trying to free up the mind over those putts is something MacIntyre continues to work on. Searching for the carefree approach and gung-ho abandon of more youthful days is what many golfers strive to rediscover. It’s easier said than done.

“It’s still a work in progress,” added MacIntyre. “I’m trying my hardest. I’m  maybe over-trying just now. I mean, it’s not like I have a problem with the putting. They’re just not going in the hole at the moment. 

“They’re decent putts but it’s just not me of a year-and-a-half ago, when I couldn’t miss. I just need to get that freedom back and just go with it.”

The scramble to make the cut had plenty players embroiled in a roller-coaster. Rory McIlroy certainly experienced one. Two bogeys to start had him on the back foot before a trio of birdies repaired the damage. Two more dropped shots at 16 and 17, however, left him right on the wire. 

The birdie putt on the last in a 70 for a level-par total was greeted with a great sigh of relief. Merely scraping into the closing 36-holes was hardly his ambition at the start of the championship, though. “It's tough to be here and just say ‘I'm glad to be here for the weekend’, but that's the reality,” said the 2014 Open champion. “I just have to try to make the most of that.”

Bryson DeChambeau also squeaked through on the one-over limit, a day on from being lambasted for acting like “an eight-year-old” by his own equipment manufacturers after he had whined that the driver they had made for him “sucks” during a withering rant.

The hoopla has clearly been a distraction and DeChambeau’s apology was of the grovelling kind. “I didn’t mean it, it was in a heated situation and I feel really bad about it,” he said. “I’ll say it again; I’m very, very sorry. I’m 27, I’m human, I make mistakes. It was (a distraction), for sure. And I hope it’s not moving into the weekend.”

We will see ...