WHEN those golfing gods are against you, this pesky old game can make even the most optimistic of folk appear as doom-laden as Private Frazer from Dad’s Army.
Russell Knox has always looked on the bright side but, after a two-over 74 in round one of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open, even he is beginning to get decidedly scunnered by his current run of form.
The sight of him awkwardly straddling the burn on Dundonald’s 18th – his ninth – and stabbing at his ball which then ricocheted off the bank and dropped into the water illustrated the kind of straits into which Knox has been plunged.
“I just feel lost,” conceded Scotland’s No 1 on the global pecking order.
In the not so merry midst of a prolonged rut, Knox has been searching everywhere for some answers but they are proving difficult to find.
“I’ve tried everything,” said the two-time tour winner. “I didn’t touch a club for nine days before I came here. I’ve practised very hard, I have tried not caring but it’s hard.
"I know everyone goes through it at some stage but I feel I’m just getting punched in the face right now.
"I’m hitting bad shots and getting some bad breaks and I can’t seem to get anything good to happen. It’s very frustrating.
"Everything is just a little off so I’ll go back to the drawing board and start again.”
With Stephen Gallacher and Richie Ramsay establishing decent beachheads on the leaderboard with 68s, Grantown's Duncan Stewart was the next best Scot on 71
Martin Laird, who went out in three-under, saw his momentum halted with a crippling seven on the 10th as he stumbled home in 42 for a 75.
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