A bit of Shevchenko stardust helped Stephen Gallacher produce one of his best rounds of the season.
The Ryder Cup player has found 2015 a struggle, plummeting down the world rankings to 96 and racking up plenty of missed cuts along the way.
But, in the company of the former AC Milan striker, football-fan Gallacher fired a five under par 67 at St Andrews for a share of eighth place.
The pro-am format isn’t to everyone’s taste but the Scot, a former Dunhill winner, enjoys it.
The Celtic supporter said: “I started off spinning a ball back into the burn at the first but as Shevchenko says, it’s the first minute, 90 minutes left.
“Actually, I said that to him! It was my football analogy there was plenty of time.
“It was a really good fourball (Oliver Wilson and Alan Hansen were the other partnership). I always quite enjoy this format. You get a good talk and a good laugh. As long as you get good company like today, it just flies.
“Andriy’s good. He’s scratch. I wished he’d fudged his handicap so we could pick up a few more shots.
“I had never met Andriy before. I’ve played with Cruyff three or four times, and del Piero. I didn’t mind until Shevchenko told us he scored a winner against Celtic for AC Milan.”
Gallacher has changed coach and tinkered with his swing, and is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel.
“I actually left some out there to be honest,” he said. “That’s as good as I’ve played for a while. It’s hard to play when you’re changing stuff. It takes a wee bit of time to sort of commit to it and trust it.
“But, coming back to a place like this that I know really well, I just let it go a bit more. I’m really happy and looking forward to Carnoustie tomorrow.”
Gallacher was leading Scot, with David Drysdale (St Andrews) and Marc Warren (Carnoustie) a shot behind him on four under.
Warren bogeyed the last but it was still an excellent day on the notoriously difficult Angus links.
“Absolutely,” he said. “Even though the weather has been kind to us, it’s still a very tough course.
“I changed this week to a new driver and new golf ball and that’s made a huge difference.”
Paul Lawrie (St Andrews) was two under, and he reflected: “I didn’t quite get what I deserved today. It was a lovely day with only a little bit of breeze so it was frustrating to be only two under. There is still a long way to go though.”
Blairgowrie’s Bradley Neil got to two under on the Old Course at one point, but a front nine of 40 (his back nine) resulted in a round of three over.
Scott Jamieson is level and Chris Doak one over.