Colin Montgomerie surprised even himself as he made an excellent start to his first US Open in seven years at Chambers Bay.
The 51-year-old earned a place in the field having won the US Senior Open last year, but he suddenly emerged as a doubt last weekend when he admitted himself to hospital after experiencing chest pains during the third round of the Constellation Senior Players Championship.
But doctors at the Massachusetts General Hospital gave Montgomerie the all-clear and he returned to play the final round and finish in a tie for third - seven shots behind runaway winner Bernhard Langer.
Four days later, the Scot continued his encouraging form and put together a commendable one-under 69, matched by fellow 51-year-old Miguel Angel Jimenez, to lie four shots off the lead.
After signing his card, Montgomerie headed for the Sky Sports commentary box to share the experience of his round, which featured four birdies and three bogeys.
"It feels great," he said. "In practice I was shooting more like 80 but this morning the course was softer; they had to do that because they knew it would dry out. The greens were pretty receptive early on and allowed scoring. It's just the length I have an issue with, especially off the tee.
"This is not a normal links course where you can run the ball into the greens. You have to carry the ball onto the surfaces and often that is right on my limit. So today a 69 was super. To break 70 was more than I was expecting.
"I wanted to represent the title I won last year and the position I hold. There's a long way to go, but 69 is a good start. It's nice to justify the exemption I was given."
Montgomerie, who finished runner-up in the US Open in 1994, 1997 and 2006, added: "Can I win? Have stranger things happened?
"What Tom Watson did at Turnberry aged 59 (losing a play-off in the 2009 Open) has given everybody over 50 hope. So you never know. If the ball runs my way and I hole a lot of putts over the next three days, you never know. I could get into contention, which would be great."
Patient Warren
Meanwhile, Montgomerie's fellow Scot Marc Warren went one better in just his second US Open appearance as he carded four birdies against two bogeys in a two-under 68.
"I'm obviously really pleased with that," said the 34-year-old from Glasgow, who finished tied for 65th on his US Open debut at Olympic Club in 2012. "Anything under par in a US Open is a pretty good score, so to shoot 68 today on a course like that was very nice.
"I got a couple under early on and after that I just tried to stay as patient as I possibly could. When you look at the leaderboard and see guys on five or six under it's easy to get carried away and try to chase a really low score, but that's a very dangerous game to play. You're better off leaving them to it because you know this course will force you into making some mistakes along the way.
"Level par is always normally going to be a pretty decent score in the US Open. That's the way the USGA set their courses up, so you have to adapt, play conservatively for the most part, keep the mistakes to a minimum and try to take your chances if and when they come along."
Warren, who won his third European Tour title in Denmark last year, birdied the fourth and fifth to reach the turn in 33 and recovered from bogeys on the 10th and 11th with birdies at the 15th and 18th.
"This morning it was slightly softer than it had been in practice, so you could take on a couple more flags," he added. "The ball was stopping a little bit easier, but you can't get overly aggressive, as tempting as it is, because the undulations can put your ball 30, 40, 50 yards away from the green.
"You still had to be very patient, although distance control was much easier to start the round than it was at the end. I could see it drying out, more like the practice rounds.
"Tomorrow afternoon I think will be exactly the way the course played Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday."