So how did he have fun the information? He flew straight dwelling to get his passport.
Having not foreseen a visit to Scotland any time quickly, the Alabama-born golfer raced again to Birmingham to seize the mandatory paperwork, squeezing in three hours of sleep earlier than jetting to JFK Airport within the early hours of Monday morning to board a aircraft to Edinburgh, through Dublin.
Working on “none to zero” sleep from the day before today, Mullinax rolled into St. Andrews at 8am Tuesday. Simply after lunch, he was out on the Outdated Course on the first tee of his 18-hole apply spherical to organize for the beginning of the match Thursday.
“Somewhat little bit of a blur,” he summed up his week to reporters Saturday.
“I used to be truly okay Tuesday. Wednesday and Thursday I used to be actually drained.”
Regardless of his fatigue, Mullinax carded a stable one-under 71 on the opening day. Three bogeys throughout his 73-stroke second spherical practically minimize his Open debut quick, however a par on the 18th was sufficient to see him sneak below the minimize line and make it to the weekend.
And earlier than heading out for his third spherical, Mullinax found what he believed to be the reason for some errant placing: bent golf equipment. On touchdown in Edinburgh, the American stated he had discovered his golf equipment out of his bag and resting in his journey case.
“I suppose going by TSA or no matter they only took the irons out,” he speculated.
“I truly came upon final night time that my putter was two levels off, I knew it appeared humorous … I used to be like ‘Man, I do not know what is going on on.’
“The ball wasn’t rolling prefer it was in Kentucky and I am like ‘Absolutely I did not lose it in two days.'”
Certain sufficient, Mullinax loved a robust third spherical, rolling in seven birdies en path to carding a six-under 66. It marked a seven stroke enchancment on the day before today, although he was narrowly pipped by enjoying companion Kevin Kisner, who shot 65.
Although slowing by the again 9, his compatriot had made a blistering begin Saturday morning, matching Mullinax’s seven birdie tally for the spherical inside simply 10 holes.
“At this time was nice … I used to be simply attempting to maintain up with Kis the entire time, he was placing phenomenal,” Mullinax stated.
“It grew to become like ‘who might take advantage of birdies?'”
“It was a very cool second,” he stated.
“It was getting darkish, the solar was getting low. To have that view strolling throughout the bridge, all of the reminiscences you have seen right here, that was actually cool for me.”
