Last Saturday, the 30-year-old was in pursuit of a maiden victory on the PGA Tour in Kentucky. Seven days on — as a newly-crowned Trip winner — he or she completed an impressive third round at his first Open Championship in Saint Andrews, Scotland.
A one-shot triumph on Weekend at the Barbasol Championship, co-sanctioned by both PGA and DP World Tours, stamped Mullinax’s ticket to the particular ‘home of golf’ for the 150th edition of the main.
So how do he celebrate this news? He flew straight home to get his passport.
Having not foreseen a trip to Scotland any time soon, the Alabama-born golfer raced returning to Birmingham to grab the necessary documents, squeezing in 3 hours of sleep before jetting in order to JFK Airport within the early hours associated with Monday morning to board an aircraft to Edinburgh, via Dublin.
Operating on “none to zero” sleep from the previous day, Mullinax rolled into St . Andrews at 8am Tuesday. Just after lunch time, he was out on the Old Course in the first tee associated with his 18-hole exercise round to prepare for your start of the tournament Thursday.
“A little bit of an obnubilate, ” he summed up his 7 days to reporters Saturday.
“I was actually okay Tuesday. Wednesday plus Thursday I was actually tired. ”
Despite their fatigue, Mullinax carded a solid one-under 71 on the opening time. Three bogeys throughout his 73-stroke 2nd round nearly reduce his Open first appearance short, but the par at the 18th was enough to see him sneak under the cut line and make it to the weekend break.
Plus before heading out meant for his third round, Mullinax discovered exactly what he believed to be the reason for some errant putting: bent clubs. On landing in Edinburgh, the American mentioned he had found his clubs out of their bag and sleeping in his travel case.
“I guess going through TSA or whatever they just took the irons out, ” he speculated.
“I in fact found out last night that will my putter has been two degrees away, I knew this looked funny… I used to be like ‘Man, We don’t know what’s going on. ‘
“The ball wasn’t rolling like it was in Kentucky and I’m such as ‘Surely I failed to lose it within two days. ‘”
Affirmed, Mullinax enjoyed a powerful third round, rolling in seven birdies en route to carding a six-under 66. This marked a 7 stroke improvement on the previous day, even though he was directly pipped by playing partner Kevin Kisner, who shot sixty-five.
Though slowing through the back again nine, his compatriot had made a blistering start Saturday morning, matching Mullinax’s seven birdie tally for the round within just 10 holes.
“Today was great… I used to be just trying to maintain Kis the whole time, he was placing phenomenal, ” Mullinax said.
“It became like ‘who could make the most birdies? ‘”
A tearful Gambling Woods’ rousing reception to the 18th fairway had been arguably the identifying moment of Friday’s third round, even though played out to a smaller crowd, Mullinax produced special memories associated with his own crossing the particular Swilcan Bridge later that evening.
“It was a really cool moment, inch he said.
“It has been getting dark, the sun was getting reduced. To have that view walking across the bridge, all the memories you’ve seen here, which was really cool for me. ”