Home favourites Richie Ramsay and Robert MacIntyre are relishing the chance to make immediate amends for a missed opportunity in a star-studded Genesis Scottish Open.
The Scottish pair were both in contention to win in Denmark last week, with Ramsay finishing a shot outside the eventual play-off after hitting his approach to the last into the water and making a double bogey.
MacIntyre held a two-shot lead at the turn but ran up a triple-bogey seven on the 13th after failing to move his second shot from waist-high rough and then having to take a penalty drop.
But after sharing a car to the airport on Sunday evening, MacIntyre and Ramsay were also singing from the same hymn-sheet in terms of focusing on the positives ahead of a £7million event on home soil which boasts eight of the world’s top 10.
“The past week was probably the best golf I’ve played in a long, long time,” MacIntyre said at the Renaissance Club.
“I had so much control of the golf ball. For 71 holes I was in absolute cruise control. When I sit back and look at it, for the first 12 holes (on Sunday) I played golf perfectly. I didn’t put a foot wrong.
“On 13 I hit a good shot, flushed it, but just pulled it 10 yards. My natural shape is a draw and with the wind off the left, it was curving the wrong direction.
“But my head’s in a good place. I feel like you’ve got to take a couple of punches before you can hold a trophy. OK we had such a good chance to win, but it was all preparation for these two weeks.
“I shared a car with Richie going to the airport on Sunday night and he was on the phone speaking to his family and friends, I was getting phone calls from my manager and I was hanging up.
“I wasn’t speaking to anybody, I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. Richie has been out here a lot longer than me. He was a bit calm and chatting away. Once he was on the phone calls, I sat in a huff in the front seat.
“I was sitting there in absolute silence thinking to myself, ‘What just went wrong? Why has it went wrong?’… But I’m here now and last week is last week.
“Once I spoke to people they just assured me that’s not going to be the last hiccup I’m going to have on the journey. It’s going to happen again. But if you keep putting yourself in positions like Kenya, Korea, last week, I can’t not lift a trophy at some point.
“I was one step shy last week and what better time to correct the wrong than one of these next two (Scottish Open or Open Championship)?”
Ramsay, who also double-bogeyed the 72nd hole of last year’s British Masters at The Belfry when needing a par to claim the clubhouse lead, promised to keep “shooting for the stars” when in contention.
“It hurt to lose,” Ramsay said. “Ever since I was a little kid I hate losing but it’s part and parcel of the journey these days and only makes you stronger and more determined to get a win.
“I spoke to my brother this morning and he said you’d have a problem if you weren’t putting yourself in that position and I took that on board and realised that the problem is not that I hit a bad shot at the wrong time, the problem would be if I wasn’t putting myself in that position.
“I mean, I was annoyed I didn’t win but for me, I didn’t do anything wrong. The shot I hit at The Belfry was because I was indecisive. I didn’t make a clear decision and that’s on me.
“That’s why it hurt a lot more but on this one last week, my viewpoint is that you’ve got to hit a great shot down the stretch to win a tournament.
“There’s an opportunity here. If you don’t take it, you’re going to regret it. I don’t regret taking it, because if I pulled it off, I feel that I left myself in a good position to get up and down or two-putt, and you win a tournament.
“You kind of shoot for the stars and I will hit one of those stars again sooner or later.”
