It doesn’t seem that long ago that all you got from the crowd on a Ryder Cup first tee for the Sunday singles was a lot of “ole, ole, oles” and a few defiant U-S-As.
Raucous? Yes. But predictable.
These days, the galleries are far more creative. All the European boys get greeted to the opening hole with their very own, personalised song.
It brings to mind an image of a few blokes dressed in blue waistcoats with yellow stars and Rory McIlroy wigs sitting around a stereo with pens and paper some time in the middle of summer, trying to find a lyric that rhymes with Victor Dubuisson.
All 12 players got one (most of which would have gone over the head of anybody under 40, it has to be said).
Justin Rose’s was to the tune of Spandau Ballet’s Gold. “You’re indestructible, always believe in ‘cos you are Rose, ROSE.”
Old McDowell had a farm, McIlroy got an adaptation of the 12 Days of Christmas, while Henrik Stenson was, unsurprisingly, serenaded with a bit of Abba.
No imagination there, lads.
When it was Stephen Gallacher’s turn in game number five, the grandstand choirboys had come up with “Glory, Glory Stevie Gallacher.and the putts go rolling in”.
For nine holes “Glory, Glory Stevie Gallacher.and the putts go shaving the hole while Mickelson’s go rolling in” would have been more apt (though admittedly not quite such a good fit).
It was certainly how the match began.
Gallacher couldn’t have struck a better opening drive and when his second shot landed four feet from the pin, the roar that followed wouldn’t have been any louder had he set up a tap-in for himself to win The Open at St Andrews.
It could have been the perfect start, but the putt lipped out.
Walking down the second hole, well-oiled hospitality types were hanging out of the huge corporate tent that looms large over the fairway, while all manner of famous faces were straining to see the action from closer to the ropes.
Gallacher is a Celtic diehard, but for once it was Scott Brown who was watching him, not the other way around.
The Parkhead skipper would have been raising his pint glass to Gallacher (I’m assuming the Celtic players have a day off training today) when he made birdie with a 12-footer that must have had a half-foot break on it.
For the next hour-and-a-half that was his lot though. The Gallacher putter went cold and nothing dropped.
While the Bathgate man was missing them from varying distances, albeit none were short-putt gimmes, Mickelson was finding his game.
When Ivor Robson announced on the first that the match referee had the surname Price, it probably sent a shiver down the American’s spine and conjured up horrible flashbacks of Philip Price inflicting Mickelson’s most infamous Ryder Cup defeat back in 2002 at the Belfry.
The Welsh flag welcoming him on to the first green wouldn’t have helped either.
But Lefty couldn’t have looked more at ease on the PGA Centenary Course.
He joked with the crowd when they forgot to shout “fore” on one of his practice swings and there were plenty of all-American grins as he covered the Perthshire turf with that loping farmer’s stride of his.
He might even have seen that his old Scottish Open pal Alex Salmond was following the match. (No prizes for guessing who was giving out the most high-fives with the crowd, though).
It wasn’t Salmond’s shoulder Mickelson was putting an arm around on his way to the sixth green. It was his wife Amy’s.
You don’t see that on the last day of The Masters, and it was a sign of the relaxed mood the big man was in.
By then he’d squared the match with a stunning birdie on five, and a kiss and cuddle from his good lady inspired two in a row after the Mickelsons parted ways.
Following shared pars on seven, cousin Kirsty appeared at the back of the eighth green but she didn’t bring a change of luck, as it was Mickelson’s putt that dropped and not Gallacher’s.
A victory for the five-time major winner by a handsome margin now appeared a realistic possibility but, to the Ryder Cup debutante’s credit, he fought back around the turn first holing from more than 30 feet for birdie on the par three 10th and then backing it up from short distance on 11.
Pars (and a birdie at four) were traded before it was errors in Gallacher’s long-game that decisively swung the match back in Mickelson’s favour.
Poor drives on 15 and 16 cost him those holes, and when he found the rough with his tee shot on the short 17th, a clumsy chip ran through the green and into the bunker.
He needed to hole it to have any chance of forcing the game down the last, but couldn’t, and didn’t insult his opponent by asking him to make a two-putt from 10 feet, instead offering a concessionary handshake.
Mickelson finished his round six-under for 17 holes.