Golfers, by their nature, tend to be pretty hard on themselves. A missed putt here on a chunked chip there can lead to the kind of flagellation that John Cleese dished out to his mini in that old episode of Fawlty Towers.
Calum Hill may have stopped short of giving himself a damn good thrashing when things haven’t gone particularly well on the course down the years, but the Scot has been known to be overly critical of himself.
These days, he’s trying to smell the roses. A neatly assembled five-under 65 in round one of the Genesis Scottish Open certainly helped his outlook as he finished just one shot off the early lead.
“My wife has kicked me for the last few months and has said that this is just another event, and I should just go and enjoy it more,” said Hill of his better half’s sage advice.
“I think I used to be a bit more on edge coming into this event, so if anything went off-keel, I would get frustrated and disappointed quite quickly.
“That was because it’s my favourite event of the year and you want to do so well in it.
“I'm sure the other Scots will say the same thing, especially when it's getting so big now. It's such a big tournament and a good week here goes a long way.
“But I’m trying to be a little bit easier on myself. Obviously good golf like this helps.”
Hill certainly put on a good show at the Renaissance. The 30-year-old, who has made the cut in his previous five Scottish Open appearances, didn’t drop a shot all day and illuminated a tidy card with a raking birdie putt of 50-feet on the seventh.
The input of his new caddie, Stuart Davidson, helped to limit any potential damage when Hill did veer off the straight and narrow.
“He’s a very good analytical person when it comes to where the ball needs to finish to give me the best chance,” added Hill, who was a triple champion on the second-tier HotelPlanner Tour before making the grade on the main circuit with a breakthrough win in 2021.
“If I've not hit it particularly well off the tee, he’s just looking to get back in position. Every single time, it was always in a place where it was quite a straightforward up and down.
“There was never one where I'm like, ‘oh my goodness, how am I going to make a par here?’ I always had a really good chance.”
As well as an assault on the Scottish title, Hill, who won the Joburg Open earlier this season, is looking to nab one of the three places on offer for next week’s Open Championship at Royal Portrush.
If he doesn’t make it to the final men’s major of the season on the Antrim coast, then he’ll hop on a plane for a slightly longer trek to California for the Barracuda Championship. Have clubs, will travel and all that.
“No matter what happens, I'm playing golf next week,” said Hill of another co-sanctioned event full of opportunity. “Every single year, I finish at the Scottish Open feeling disappointed because I didn't get into the Open, so I've booked flights (to the US) and I'm going.”
And if he does pinch an Open tee-time? “The flights are refundable,” he added with a smile.
Grant Forrest, a Renaissance member, began with a bogey and finished with a bogey. In between, though, he managed to winkle out five birdies as he finished on the three-under mark.
A shot behind Forrest was Robert MacIntyre, who was happy enough to get his title defence up-and-running with a 68.
Did it feel different being ushered on to the tee with all the bells and whistles of the reigning champion?
“Not really,” said MacIntyre, who remains as down to earth as a muddied shinty stick. “I mean there's more attention, there are more eyeballs, there's more support.
“But I just go out there and play golf and fight as hard as I can. That was a decent knock.”
Ewen Ferguson was certainly knocking it well during the early stages of his opening round. The Bearsden man, a three-time winner on the DP World Tour, birdied four holes in a row from the third to zoom up the order.
Ferguson was still four-under coming to the closing stretch but slipped back with bogeys at 15 and 18 and had to settle for a two-under 68.
He was joined on that score by Fife’s KLM Open champion Connor Syme, who manged to pick up a couple of birdies coming home after a level-par outward half.
Richie Ramsay, the sixth home hopeful in the field, opened his account with a level-par 70.
