Five hours later he discovered that his one-over-par total was one too many to survive.

Not that he seemed troubled by having to change his plans and head for Troon two days early.

“It was a nice day to play and a great day to score. We saw some low scores, but not from me.

“There’s no real reason. I just didn’t score very well. I’ll go to Troon and I don’t think there’s anything in particular for me to work on.

“I’ve been reviewing my notes for next week at night, so I haven’t been worrying about here too much. It may have contributed to some poor play, but I didn’t feel like I played too badly.”

Mickelson, without a single top 10 finish on his Open record, has already played one practice round on the Ayrshire links.

Also out of the £2.2million event went Open champion Ben Curtis on three over and Darren Clarke, who shanked a five-iron in his 73 for two over.

The Northern Irishman, joint second in the last Open at Troon seven years ago and four clear at one point that week, commented: “I had numerous chances on the first nine and then hit a couple of bad shots.”

He ran up a bogey six on the third, but could not believe his second shot had finished in the hazard by the green, and then shank came off the tee at the short fifth.

“A stone, cold shank – I didn’t even go looking for it,” he said.