The gifted eccentric strode down the 18th sniffing constantly but with the confidence of a man who had paid his British Open dues. And after a closing par for an aggregate of 145, Jesper Parnevik moved into contention once more at the halfway stage of a championship which has narrowly eluded him twice in the last five years.
Parnevik was so choked up with hay fever and various other allergies, that he considered quitting after the fifth hole. But responding to the encouragement of the R & A marshal with his group, he went on to card a fine 71 and ended the day in third place, two strokes behind the surprise leader, Jean Van de Velde.
Conditions were even more difficult than on Thursday, with south to southwest winds gusting to 25 mph in the afternoon. But the elements finally helped Tom Watson to conquer a par-three which had stubbornly refused to bow to his majestic skills in six previous championship rounds.
After successive bogeys at the short, 250-yard 16th, the fifth of them in the play-off in 1975, Watson finally achieved the breakthrough yesterday. And he did it with a birdie, hitting a five iron downwind to 15 feet and sinking the putt. And he also birdied the 18th.
Through the most cruel of ironies, however, his total of 155 was a stroke outside the cut of 154 - 12 over par. And interestingly, this was two strokes inside the figure of 156 (14 over) for Royal Lytham in 1974, which remains the highest qualifying mark of the modern era.
On a day of fluctuating fortunes for the Irish, Padraig Harrington and Darren Clarke became the standard-bearers on 151. Clarke's 75, which culminated in a birdie at the last, had particular merit for his recovery from a triple-bogey eight at the treacherous sixth.
A significant casualty was Rodney Pampling who, after an 86, gained the unwanted distinction of becoming the first leader of the opening round, to fail to make the cut. And there was also an unscheduled departure for Mark O'Meara who, on 15 over par, became the first defending champion to fall at the half-way stage since Mark Calcavecchia in 1990.
Meanwhile, Van de Velde returned not only the lowest score of the day, but undoubtedly the best. For his 68 was done in the worst of the weather, five groups after championship favourite Tiger Woods had felt the brunt of the elements during a homeward journey of 38 for 74 and a share of fourth place.
Angel Cabrera, who made such a spirited challenge for the Murphy's Irish Open, in which he finished second to Sergio Garcia earlier this month, was the only other player to break 70. The Argentinian, known affectionately to his countrymen as Pato, the duck, shot a 69 which moved him into second place.
Greg Norman was set to outscore them both, however, when he needed a par, par finish for a 67. But he took a horrendous seven at the 17th where, in attempting a sandwedge recovery from vicious rough, he actually missed the ball completely. "I couldn't see the ball," he said afterwards. "The grass was so thick that I had to guess where it was."
An indication of worsening conditions could be gleaned from the manner in which Cabrera and Parnevik played the sixth, almost three hours apart. In the morning, the Argentinian was short of the target with an eight-iron approach, after playing a three iron and four iron for position. In the afternoon, the Swede was also short, having played a three wood off the tee and then two one-irons, hit as hard as he dared.
Unlike many of his peers, Van de Velde had a privileged background in that he took up the game as a six-year-old when his parents were water-skiing close to their summer-house in Biarritz. "I didn't like the water and while I stood in the garden, all I could see walking by, was this golfer," he recalled. "So I asked my parents to take me to golf - and they did. It was adventure golf, mini golf."
Now, 27 years on, he played adventure golf on a grand scale. His only bogey when moving into line for his highest finish in five Opens, was at the short 13th, where he was in a greenside bunker. Otherwise he played beautifully, becoming one of only nine players to birdie the infamous, 578-yard sixth, which he reduced to a drive, four iron, seven iron and a 30-foot putt.
In the case of Parnevik, however, the post-round comments were, almost predictably, more interesting than his play. For a start, two pieces of paper stuck up his nostrils for much of the round, required some explanation. "That was hay fever, terrible hay fever," said the player who was runner-up at Turnberry in 1994 and Royal Troon in 1997 and fourth at Royal Birkdale last year. "It was just dripping all the time and I was sneezing all the time."
Before starting the round, he told his Swedish coach: "I think I'm going to shoot pretty low because I have a fever, my allergies have never been worse and my hand is hurting. It looks like a 65 today." He went on: "Being two over after six, I could have taken a 78 or 79 so to shoot 71 in the end is beyond my dreams, actually."
The Swede, who has been known to eat volcanic ash, continued: "I had to time my putts and shots between my sneezes. It must be the high rough. I haven't felt like this for five, 10 years. In fact this is the worst I ever felt."
Trust Parnevik to put an extreme slant on the notion that one should beware the injured golfer.
