Sir Nick Faldo felt spooked after a testing second round at a blustery Balgownie.
The six-time major winner opted to take up an invite for the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open in order to get his game in shape for next week’s Open at Hoylake.
The Englishman made an early exit after successive rounds of 73 for a four-over-par total.
He had played the opening six holes yesterday in four under par but six bogeys followed to leave his hopes of making the cut shattered.
He said: “I played nicely on the easy holes which were downwind but then I had a couple of bad holes and that just scared me. I didn’t know what to do for a while.
“I got away with murder on the sixth when I pulled my tee shot into the rough but had a pretty decent lie, whacked it with a six iron and got a good kick off the hill and managed to hole a 40-foot putt for eagle.
“But after that I kept pulling them left and didn’t know what to do.
“I was hitting shots and I wasn’t sure where they were going to go.”
However Faldo, who spends more time in the commentary booth than the course these days, says he is feeling more confident going into next week’s Open after managing to play some competitive links golf.
He added: “I feel like I have found a few things and I will go and work on some others ahead of next week.”