England's Eddie Pepperell insists leading The Open Championship on his debut had nothing to do with him slashing a drive out of bounds into the Old Course Hotel.
With overnight leader Dustin Johnson still waiting to tee off, the 24 year old joined the American on ten under par after eight birdies in 16 holes.
He needed to finish with back-to-back birdies to become the first man in Major Championship history to shoot 62, but crashed his tee-shot at the infamous Road hole high up the side of the hotel, dropping two shots to finish with a 66 for an eight under total.
Pepperell has three top-five finishes in 14 events this season, so is not averse to being in contention and, although he said he did not look at the leaderboard after another birdie at 16, he admitted having such a good round may have made him complacent as he approached the hardest hole on the Old Course and one of the toughest par fours in golf.
"Obviously I knew I was in a good position but I didn't care where I was at on the leaderboard," he added.
"I felt very confident on the tee shot on 17 and maybe did not focus on one or two things that would help me into the left-to-right wind that I tend to struggle with.
"You could argue there was a bit of complacency there but I did not want to bail out left because that's admitting defeat on a tough hole.
"To finish double bogey-par is disappointing around this golf course.
"I don't feel that comfortable with my driver so I'm going to have to improve that a little bit come tomorrow.
"Having said that, you haven't got to drive the ball immaculately around this golf course, you just can't hit a bad shot on a couple of holes quite frankly.
"My putting was good today and it's going to be the guy with the hottest putter, depending a little bit on the conditions, that's going to come closest to winning this tournament because you can have a lot of birdie opportunities.
"If I can keep putting well and keep the pace that I've got on the greens, then I feel like I can make enough birdies to certainly give it a run tomorrow."
