Michael Hendry was left cherishing being able to compete at The 152nd Open after overcoming leukaemia to start at Royal Troon.
Hendry was unable to take his place in the field after qualifying for last year’s championship at Royal Liverpool following his diagnosis.
The event’s organisers, the R&A, deferred his place to 2024 and the New Zealander admitted the prospect of playing at the Ayrshire links this week had kept him going in his darkest moments.
“It was incredible,” said Hendry after a three-over-par 74.
“I can’t really describe how grateful I am, not only to the R&A, but to all the doctors and nurses that have helped me over the last 12 months.
“This is one thing that really got me through my recovery, and to finally be here and teeing it up was extremely special and quite emotional.”
Among the morning wave of starters in the opening round, Hendry was three over through his opening five holes after bogeys at the second, third and fifth.
He showed resolve to make birdies at the seventh and 16th, with a bogey at the 14th in between, and conceded it took him time to settle on the course as thoughts of what he had been through over the past year came flooding back.
“I believe that was the issue for the first six or seven holes,” he said. “It was a mixture of too much reminiscing, too many thoughts about, ‘I’m actually here, I’m actually doing this’.
“I suppose it just took a few holes to get through that. Once I got through that, I managed to sort of just get myself back into tournament mode and played pretty well.”
