A ticking off, a verbal volley, a tongue lashing or a well-intentioned pep talk? Whatever you want to call it, Russell Knox has always been grateful for the golfing input of his better half.
After a largely hum-drum start to his Turkish Airlines Open campaign on Thursday, Knox’s wife, Andrea, got to work. Even her sister chipped in to form something of a pincer movement.
“At dinner after my first round, they were both like ‘that wasn’t very good was it?’,” said Knox, who responded robustly yesterday with a five-under 66 which lifted him on to a six-under total. “But that’s the reason we get on so well. My wife’s certainly not a cheerleader. Well, she is. She’s the most supportive wife I could ever have but she’s a tough one on me.
“Of all my family, she’s the one who says it like it is. And I need that. I respect that. There’s no shoulder to cry on. She’s been around this scene for so long. She’s seen the best of the best and when she sees me not doing well she’s like ‘c’mon now’.”
Knox certainly got going at Regnum Carya yesterday and, starting on the 11th tee, the Scot made birdies on his opening three holes. If those gains were profitable, his bold par save on his final hole was just as important to the general momentum.
Knox’s approach out of the rough took a violent kick into the trees but from the pine straw, he managed to dunt a recovery out to within inches of the hole.
“I guess I channelled my inner Seve there and it was probably the best up-and-down of my life,” he added of a Ballesteros-esque salvage operation. “I was fortunate I had a shot from the pine straw and just nipped it to within a foot. It looked like I knew what I was doing.”
Stephen Gallacher, the only other Scot in the field, had a fairly uneventful level-par 72 as he finished on a one-under total.
“It was a bit of a scramble all day,” said the former Ryder Cup player. “I’m just not really on my game right now. This is a very scoreable course but not if you’re hitting it to 30-feet. I’m not getting in close enough.”
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