SHOULD IT stay, or will it go? Not normally the superstitious type, Graeme McDowell rubbed his hand along the designer stubble. Golf, for a moment, wasn’t on his mind. “I’m not a big fan of shaving. I might not shave until I win again, although my mother will be begging me to shave it off . . . I’m working on a new look, maybe.”

A new look to go with greater expectations? For now, at least until his work here is done, the film star looks will remain.

That win mightn’t be too far away, if the evidence of his first round play – which yielded a 68, two under – is anything to go by. Apart from the 16th, a hole where a deep burn runs in front of the green and gobbles up any stray approaches, the 29-year-old Ulsterman played controlled golf to play his way into the thick of things in this 138th British Open.

The one aberration to his round came on the 16th, a hole which played as the toughest of all in yesterday’s opening round.

There, McDowell ran up a double-bogey six after pushing his tee-shot into the first cut of rough and, left with the ball below his feet, proceeded to mishit his six-iron approach and could only watch as the ball veered right and into the burn. It led to that expensive double bogey.

“I was trying to hit six-iron way left of the pin and I just put a really bad swing at it . . . these things happen.” But McDowell, as he tends to be, was philosophical about those late dropped shots.

“It was disappointing but I can’t really complain . . . I hung on in there well, putted lovely all day and gave myself loads of chances. I’m very happy with my game.

“I’ll continue to do what I’m doing. I know I have the game to be there or thereabouts come Sunday. I’ve got to hit the shots at the right time this weekend, but patience is the key really.”

Patience. McDowell’s season has all been about keeping his patience, his play in regular tournaments contrasting starkly with his performances in the majors where he has racked up top-20 finishes in both the US Masters and the US Open. Now, here he is again, reserving his best play for the biggest show in golf. He’s become a major player. In fact, his run of top-20 finishes in the majors goes all the way back to Birkdale a year ago.

McDowell could have gone lower. He probably deserved to, such was the quality of his play. But leading on the Thursday of a major doesn’t interest him. He’s been there, done that.

“I guess there was no point in leading the Open on the Thursday evening. I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work,” said McDowell, who led after the first round at Hoylake in 2006 – only to slip down the field thereafter and finish with a 79 that left him in tied-61st – and shared the lead last year at Birkdale before suffering a horrible 80 in the wind on the Saturday in eventually finishing tied-19th.

The experience garnered from Hoylake and Birkdale has been stored away, and the likelihood is it will be required over he next few days as he jockeys for position going into the weekend.

A 68, for two under, constituted a decent day’s work and left him within touching distance of those setting the pace.

“If you’d said to me on the seventh tee, ‘would you take two under?’, I wouldn’t have taken it. But I probably would have taken it if it was offered to me on the first tee this morning.”

Early days yet, but how would he feel if he was thrown into a duel with Tom Watson? “I think you’ve got to be prepared to beat anyone in front of you come Sunday afternoon. It’s great to see Tom up there and if he can hang in there for the weekend, great. If not, I’ll certainly be trying hard with my game to make sure I’m in contention . . . I’ll duel with anybody in the sunshine around here.”