But while the South African’s self-belief is growing all the time, Ballesteros is totally devoid of confidence on the eve of his return to the course where he won two of his three Open crowns.

An opening eight-over-par 79 was just the latest in a long catalogue of such scores from the former world number one, who cannot even command a place in the world’s top 1,100 now and has survived only one halfway cut all season.

First man to reach 1,000 under par in his tour career, he is in freefall, finishing the 1998 season 11 over par, the 1999 one 70 over and last year 158 over. He is already 85 over this season.

He snapped at a female Spanish reporter last night when she followed up a report that he had started seeing a sports psychologist.

‘‘I have no psychologist, no teacher. I want to say that very clearly. I have everything I want,’’ he said.

‘‘I’ve lost all my confidence and without that I can’t do anything. But it’s only golf and the most important thing is my family now.’’

Ian Woosnam again had a ringside seat as Ballesteros took another battering yesterday.

Woosnam, runner-up in the European Open on Sunday, was paired with Ballesteros just as he was when he shot 76-80 and came joint 149th of the 152 finishers at the Deutsche Bank Open in May.

On that occasion Woosnam said: ‘‘It’s sad. He can’t hit it off the tee and if it was me and I couldn’t get it sorted out I would quit. I could not play like that.’’

With Swede Patrik Sjoland, the third member of the group, also returning a first round 79, Woosnam probably did well to come in with a one-under 70.

‘‘I didn’t drive very well, but I was the best of the three,’’ said the Welshman. ‘‘There were a lot of provisional balls being hit.’’

He has probably seen more than enough of Ballesteros for the time being, but was teeing off with him and Sjoland once more this afternoon.

Goosen took a three-stroke lead over Australians Adam Scott and Jarrod Moseley and New Zealander Elliot Boult into today, but the first round had to be completed first because of a four-hour rain delay at the start of the £2.2million event. Scott was among those still to finish.

It was the second 62 Goosen has recorded at Loch Lomond, one of the bidding venues for the 2009 Ryder Cup.

The first in 1997 was a course record, but yesterday’s effort could not be placed alongside it because of preferred lies on the saturated fairways. It was the same when Sergio Garcia matched it two years ago.

Goosen played the final seven holes of the European Open on five under and so was a magical 14 under for his last 19 holes when he stood on the 13th tee having already had an eagle and seven birdies.

A 59 was on, but although he fell three short of that it was another boost for the man who prior to his US Open triumph admitted he lacked confidence in himself.

Pre-tournament favourite Garcia is seven back, Colin Montgomerie and Nick Faldo eight back and Lee Westwood 10 adrift following a 73 that keeps him in the doldrums.

European Open champion Darren Clarke resumed this morning two under, having eagled the 345-yard 14th just before play was called off, while playing partner John Daly finished his truncated day’s work with three successive birdies to stand three under.