Graeme McDowell would have rather played all four rounds of the French Open but as that didn’t workout he did the next best thing and that was to play two rounds of Royal Troon and venue for next week’s Open Championship.

In fact, Royal Troon was where McDowell made his Majors debut and while he could hardly remember much of the course, he liked what he saw and he then headed on to Castle Stuart delighted with his time spent in readiness for golf’s oldest Major.

“I made my Majors debut at Troon in 2004 so it was nice to go back there but I could not remember much about 12 years ago,” he said after a rock solid opening 70 at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.

“But while it would have been nicer playing all four days of the French, I got a good workout at Troon.”

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G Mac making a point after an opening score of 70 on day one of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.