The Open 2024: Bob MacIntyre survives Royal Troon carnage to make weekend

At that stage, MacIntyre might have been forgiven for turning to playing partners Tommy Fleetwood and John Rahm and saying ‘enough of this caper, lads, I’m done’.

But instead, he somehow found the resolve to not only find his shape again, but to begin repairing the damage.

“[Caddy] Mike [Burrow] managed to talk some sense into me and make me realise I hadn’t played that badly but was shooting gazillions,” MacIntyre explained.

“Once we calmed down, it was about getting it under 90, then under 80, and we started hitting good shots.”

Nine over became eight. Then seven. Another birdie at 15 came just as the cut line moved out a stroke to six over.

Suddenly, with a sniff of prolonging his week’s work in his nostrils, MacIntyre skelped his drive over the burn at 16 and walked off another shot better off.

An up-and-down at 17 and another par down the last sealed the deal and had him puffing out his cheeks and looking to the sky as he ambled to the recorder’s tent.

“A year ago, I’d have been gone and in my car and up the road. But my attitude has been superb the last 12-15 weeks,” MacIntyre said.

“I’ve got nothing to lose now. My weather app says there’s going to be heavy rain in the afternoon, so I’ll just throw everything at it and see what happens.”

Two other home hopefuls will be in a similar scenario after Calum Scott and Ewan Ferguson also did enough earlier in the day.

Ferguson, out first in the more benign conditions, birdied 18 to grind his way to a doughty 73 and a five-over total.

Scott, meanwhile, also found a birdie down the stretch in a 75 that left him as the leading Scot – and top amateur – at four-over.

“The Silver Medal would probably be the intention,” said the 20-year-old from Nairn. “But I think two good scores and we can move up that leaderboard.”