There was a point during a post-round chin-wag with Richie Ramsay here at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship where you felt like you were blethering to Casey Jones.
“I read a lot of motivational books and one of the analogies uses a steam train,” said Ramsay after two-under 70 over the links of Carnoustie. “You have to get the steam going and if I get out there on the course, get a little run going then the momentum will be there and I’ll can do what I want.”
While he’d like to be thundering along like the Cannonball Express at full pelt, the 2018 campaign has been a bit stop-start for Ramsay. With his European Tour card on the line – if you’ll pardon another ropey railway reference – the 35-year-old needs a good couple of weeks to haul himself up into the safety zone of the leading 110 on the money list.
His one-under halfway tally may be eight shots off the pace but the Scot is content enough. As for the perilous position he finds himself on the order of merit? Well, that’s given him food for thought.
“You go up and down in life and when you are at the bottom you find out what the weaknesses are and what you are made of,” added Ramsay who wasn’t too downbeat about a double-bogey on his eighth hole as he came home in three-under.
“You almost have to embrace it and enjoy it and maybe it will make me a better player, rather than keeping my head down and letting myself feel I’m under too much pressure. The funny thing is I don’t think I’ve played badly this year and in some parts I’ve played some of the best golf I ever. It’s fine margins; a putt here and a putt there.
“I just have to go out there, enjoy it and play my best golf. I know I’m capable of it. I’m not a Rory McIlroy or a Jordan Spieth, I just want to get the most out of my game while I have the opportunity to play in these events.
“If you asked me about tournaments I’d want to win, them this would be in my top two. I’ll be trying get myself in the mix for Sunday.”
Stephen Gallacher’s 68 at Carnoustie hoisted the 2004 champion into the fringes of the top-10 on five-under.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here