Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside. “The Costa del Lothian,” smiled Grant Forrest of a shimmering, sun-soaked scene that Judith Chalmers used to revel in on an episode of Wish You Were Here.
Forrest is certainly glad he’s here for the weekend. So too is Robert MacIntyre.
The reigning Genesis Scotttish Open champion from Oban was facing an early exit as he slithered outside the cut mark but dug in, showed his usual resolve and hauled himself back inside the safety zone.
His one-over 71 was not a thing of beauty but it got the job done and he finished on the one-under limit.
“I played absolutely terribly,” admitted MacIntyre, while delivering a sizeable sigh of relief.
Things were looking particularly bleak when he lost his drive on the 13th and ended up with a potentially ruinous double-bogey six.
“It was one of the worst shots I’ve hit all season,” he said of a tee-shot which sailed out of bounds.
“At the time, I’m thinking, ‘oh well, this is it, this is curtains’. I could have lost the plot there, but I was like, ‘I've just got to keep fighting here’.”
And fight he did. The salvage operation began immediately. MacIntyre knocked his tee-shot on the par-3 14th into four-feet and gobbled up the birdie chance.
On the par-3 17th, the Scot threatened the flag again and a delightfully flighted 6-iron into three-feet spawned another birdie as he moved back to one-under for the championship.
“I guess growing up at Glencruitten on a short golf course with loads of par-3s helped me in the end,” he said of that important brace of twos.
A two-putt from distance for a par on the last completed the recovery.
“There’s no other way to describe today other than a poor performance,” added the Ryder Cup player. “But I just fought it out and ground it out and I got away with it.”
Forrest, meanwhile, enjoyed a more serene passage into the closing 36-holes. In his own backyard of East Lothian, the 32-year-old moved onto a five-under aggregate with a largely trouble-free 68.
“Links golf is hard to beat when it’s dry and sunny,” said Forrest.
The home comforts are certainly suiting him to a tee this week. “It’s nice just being at home,” he said of the domestic bliss. “We can stick the barbecue on when it’s like this too.”
Forrest has been wrestling with his game this season but there continues to be glimmers of hope that his fortunes can turn.
“Sometimes there are a couple of shots, that you may not be comfortable with hitting, but you pull them off and things like that can turn things around,” added the former Scottish Amateur champion, who won on the DP World Tour back in 2021.
A good example of such a morale-booster came on the par-five 10th. Forrest had just leaked his only shot of the day on the previous hole but hit a cracking drive, then unleashed a 5-wood to 20-feet and two-putted for a birdie.
Forrest and MacIntyre will be joined at the weekend by Fifer, Connor Syme, who double-bogeyed his final hole in a 71 but edged through on one-under.
Calum Hill, one shot off the lead after a 65 in round one, endured a torrid second day, though, and missed the cut on two-over after a shattering 77.
The 30-year-old hadn’t made a bogey in his opening round but stumbled to five on the first nine holes of round two as he plummeted down the standings.
Ewen Ferguson and Richie Ramsay also finished on two-over totals and joined the Scottish casualty list.
