The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Scotland’s hopes rest with Aberdonian Ramsay knows he has to stick to game plan as he bids to end country’s 18-year wait for a Scottish champion
With an Aberdonian in touching distance of the halfway lead at The Open, it’s probably just as well that this is Royal Birkdale 2017 rather than Carnoustie 2018.
The yearning of the Scottish golfing community for an Open winner – actually, a proper last day contender would do – is strong enough without 1999 Paul Lawrie analogies.
Richie Ramsay knows the history of this championship and he knows that his countrymen have barely merited a mention in the best part of 20 years’ worth of it.
But daydreaming his way to Sunday night or being caught up in what has, or rather hasn’t, gone before won’t help this Scot get the job done. Staying in the here and now and continuing to play as impressively as he currently is might do, though.
“I just want to focus on trying to execute my shots,” said Ramsay.
“Because I know that today, I played it one shot at a time, I picked off the shots. I committed to everything that I hit. And the end result was good.
“So, again, I’ll be trying to keep in the moment, stick to the process and try and just be positive and believe and accept maybe some bad bounces and stuff when they come.
“It’s happened to me before, I’ve kind of gone off kilter when I’ve got into contention, and I just need to stick to my game plan. My mission statement is to be the best I can be.
“I did that today very well. And I’ll try to do that tomorrow. And what will be, you never know.”
He added: “I’m not going to lie, it’s pretty cool, isn’t it? You grow up and you’ve got a 10-foot on the green to win the Open and fortunately I’m in a position to compete for it, which is something I haven’t done over the last few years.
“And I feel like I needed to sort of tick the box. I wanted to show I can compete with the best in the world in a major, which isn’t easy to do. I feel like I’ve done that the first two days. Whether I do that over the next two days, I really don’t know, but I’ll give 100%.”
Ramsay had every right to feel slightly hard done by – to only be two under in the clubhouse and level for the day after hitting greens in regulation time and time again only to see mid-range putts shave the hole.
The fact that he is viewing those near misses as encouragement of more to come rather than what might have been is in keeping with his admirable mindset.
It hasn’t always been that way for Ramsay, who has been brutally honest with his self-assessment at Opens gone by.
Lytham 2012 was one such example when he felt incapable to “see any light at the end of the tunnel”.
Ramsay isn’t the first and won’t be the last intense sportsman to find perspective arrives with fatherhood.
“It’s probably calmed me down a bit,” he acknowledged
“I definitely don’t take things for granted as much. I’m a little bit more patient. Olivia teaches me a lot.
“And I think it settles you down as a person. It kind of takes your mind off playing golf. When I was younger I definitely thought too much. I was very one-dimensional. If golf wasn’t going well, things weren’t going well.
“But now I kind of try and set golf aside. Like last week, I had a bit of a bad finish and I walked in the players’ lounge and Olivia caught me from about 20 yards away, and the hands went up and a smile on the face, and that just cheers you up. It’s brilliant. When she smiles, I smile.”
Ramsay, who used Lawrie’s Carnoustie triumph as motivation as a 16-year-old, is well aware that Open links courses have been barren territory for Scottish golfers.
“I think we’re all very driven and we all probably apply our own pressure,” he said. “We know that there’s a void, we want to fill it.
“I think there’s a good crop of young guys. Grant Forrest has huge potential. I think you’re seeing that already on the Challenge Tour. I think Bradley Neil is playing well. It’s good to see guys coming in behind us.
“We just need to push on and make sure we’ve got guys at every level in the professional ranks. And if you can have that one guy that’s the top, there’s no doubt that it drags everybody with them, not just the professionals but the kids who are watching the golf on the TV.
“Anytime I play, I’m representing my country, which is a big thing.”