Glasgow professional Paul McKechnie knows playing in this week’s Open championship is a giant step up from life on the Challenge Tour, but he is soaking up every minute of it.
The 36-year-old earned his place at Royal Liverpool by coming through a final qualifier at Gailes Links last month.
And while McKechnie may not be used to the packed grandstands and bustling environment of an Open championship, he is certainly not letting it put him off.
He said: “It feels fantastic. It’s so special. The course is so fair, scoring will be good – and you get treated like a king for a week, a wee bit different from the Challenge Tour.
“The best moment so far was my first round, walking on to the first tee. The hairs on the back of your neck just stand up.
“In Challenge Tour events, we don’t get many spectators in some events. So, if you’re off early on a Saturday morning, the whole thing is a bit flat.
“You come here and the atmosphere is crackling. From the first tee to the horseshoe of stands around the 18th green, it’s something else.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best golf tournament on the planet. It would supersede the Masters and all the rest for me. It’s how Mother Nature intended it to be.”
This will be a week to remember for McKechnie and one he almost missed having been nearly forced to withdraw from last month’s regional qualifier at Bruntsfield.
He added: “It was some journey to get to regional – and I do sometimes wonder what would have happened if I hadn’t made that flight?
“I had been playing in Antwerp, made the ferry by about five minutes, made my flight by two minutes, drove up the road, had about five hours’ sleep and then got up to drive through to regional qualifying in Edinburgh.
“Fate can have some funny turns. It had been a quiet start to the season for me, I started to get things going a wee bit on the Challenge Tour – and five minutes later I’m playing in the Open.
“I’ve been dreaming of this pretty much since I decided to be a golfer. When you’re daft as a brush at 14 or 15, you watch the greats on TV and think you can do that. The big thing I’ve noticed this week is these guys are great golfers – but they’re not superhuman, nowhere near it. They are what they are, they’ve only got 14 clubs and they’re hitting the same kind of balls I’m hitting.
“I’ve got a massive amount of respect for them but it’s a competition to see who can get the ball in the hole fastest, that’s it.”