Of all the times for Marc Warren to lose his game, it had to happen midway through an Open at St Andrews he had a shot at winning.
On Friday Warren was just three shots off the lead and looked in total control of his swing.
A Saturday off might have been a factor, but whatever the cause, his form deserted him when it mattered most, and so did his championship chances.
The Scot, whose third round 72 was followed up with a 74 yesterday to see him in at five under, revealed he had searched for a practice range solution to his mid-Open troubles. But it couldn’t be found.
He explained: “Saturday kind of felt like a long day waiting about, not knowing whether we were going or not.
“I don’t know, maybe that had something to do with it, I just couldn’t quite get it going after that.
“I didn’t drive it great yesterday, and then went and hit some balls last night with Alan (his coach).
“I just couldn’t figure anything out at all, had a double warm-up this morning to try and figure something out, but just couldn’t get it.
“I was getting lost more than anything, to be honest. I just went a bit flat from then on.”
It wasn’t just Warren’s driver that was misbehaving.
“The putter has dried up there the last couple days,” he added.
“Even coming in there I had a few really good chances, holed a nice kind of 10-footer or something like that on 17, but apart from that, I didn’t really take the birdie chances.
“Like I said, it just went a bit flat the last couple days, really.
“It’s obviously disappointing. You don’t want to go backwards any weekend, never mind when you put yourself in a good position at the Open. But it’s just one of those things. The game just wasn’t there, unfortunately, but I’m looking forward to a good couple weeks off now.”
After that break Warren will have some big weeks left in the season.
He said: “There’s still another major to play – the USPGA. This is just moving into the second half of the year to be honest.
“I’m in a decent position in the Race to Dubai and a decent position near the top 50 in the world.
“I feel as if my game is good enough to get into the top 50 and I’ve got big enough events in front of me to move up the rankings.”