Hitching a surprise ride to The Open Championship with Bryson DeChambeau was the cherry on top for major debutant Ronan Mullarney's "perfect preparation".
The Galway golfer was gearing up for his St Andrews tilt in Doonbeg from Wednesday to Friday of last week and it was there he met the big-hitting American.
"I spent a lot of time with him," revealed Mullarney, who came through final qualifying along with Dubliner David Carey.
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"He couldn’t be nicer, he was so open with the information. I was amazed.
He asked, 'How are you getting over here?'. I said, 'from Dublin' and he replied, 'We're flying from Shannon if you want to come with me'.
"And he brought me on the jet here."
As it happened the duo had a lot to talk about. Mullarney's dad owns a driving range and is a Golf Machine instructor - it is a learning system for pro golf instructors and DeChambeau swears by it.
"The Golf Machine, as Bryson would call it, is like a recipe book," said the 27-year-old.
"You could swing a club millions of different ways and he has a lot of them covered so you can just pick and choose how you want to construct your golf swing.
"It is basically a book on physics and geometry, it is kind of a deep dive into golf.
"Not many people know that, but that would be me - the people who do know me would know that’s the way I go about things.
"Bryson would be very vocal about it. I don’t. He would talk a lot more clearly than I would.
"It was great to talk to him about it. Some of the things he figured out are incredible. Very interesting character, very helpful.
"I haven’t met too many people in the public eye, especially someone as big as him, who has been as giving with their time. He couldn’t give me enough time, couldn’t help me enough.
"When I was organising to go down to Doonbeg I was told he was going to be there. I got writing questions. He answered each one of them.
"I think that was the perfect preparation. He is one of the biggest stars in golf. To familiarise myself with someone like that was brilliant.
"The conditioning down in Doonbeg was incredible. We had the run of the place - range, chipping green, they shut one of the holes for us, they couldn’t have done more for us.
"And I have played St Andrews a whole load of times. All that stuff was brilliant, great insights - but there is business to be done."
In fact Mullarney won the R&A Scholars prize on the Old Course four years ago, so he knows the venue intimately. He even played the course the day after Louis Oosthuizen won the Claret Jug in 2010, so the grandstands and signage were nothing new to him this week.
But either way he will not be distracted when he tees it up for real tomorrow.
"The way I am, I kind of get lost a little bit in the shot anyway," he explained. "Whether there are thousands, hundreds or no-one watching me, it's kind of irrelevant when I get over the ball.
"Any familiarity with the course is going to help. But there's lots of stuff that goes on between shots off the course that would be very different to what I'm used to."
A lower ball flight than many in the field this week will give Mullarney an edge.
"I’ve played the course in every breeze," he stressed. "So, preparation wise, there is not a whole lot more I can do. But it will be interesting to see how I cope. I am looking forward to see how I cope....hopefully, well.
"I’ve set out a plan. I set out a plan for every course I play. And the key will be, ‘how well can I stick to that plan?’
"If I can stick to that plan, no matter where I finish or how I do, I’ve done my job after that.
"I now have the chance to do something that’s a great achievement.
"I could say I want to make the cut or come top 10 or any of that stuff. It’s only words. I’ll stick to my plan and see where it leaves me."
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