Three weeks ago, golf was not particularly cozy. Linn Grant had just played the PGA Championship and missed the qualifying limit for the sixth time in just a few months.
On Instagram, Grant opened up and told about the unfamiliar feeling of fumbling around in the dark for so long.
It was nice to just write it off a bit. Emotional, it was probably, but maybe not as desperate as it could be interpreted. More just that it's damn frustrating when you feel like you're doing good things and playing well, but still don't get it done, says Grant to TT.
Different build-up
When we meet, she has just completed a practice round before this week's major, which is decided with magnificent views from the slopes on the French side of Lake Geneva.
As a build-up, she has been home in Sweden and "reset", as she herself expresses it.
It was well-needed.
I can be a bit hard on myself sometimes. It's been going very well these years when I've been a pro, and then suddenly comes a little "bump" on the road and then it's a bit difficult to shake it off, says the 26-year-old.
She has not played any professional tournaments since the PGA Championship. Instead, she and her father John went up to Dalarna and won the Swedish Championship in the "two generations mixed" class.
Since we last played, maybe seven years ago, Dad has checked every year - "can we go and play this year"?
This time, the answer from the daughter was yes, and a world star therefore appeared in the starting field.
One realizes then that it's not always that damn easy out here (on the tour). When you go to Snöå GK or play at home and mess around a bit - and the courses are easy in relation to here - then it goes well. You get a check that it's not the game (that's wrong), but that it's tough on the tour and that it can take a toll on the psyche sometimes.
Stark provides inspiration
There are other bright spots to think back on before the fourth of this year's five majors. Like that Linn Grant managed to squeeze in a ninth place in the US Open among all the missed qualifying limits, at the same time as her fellow competitor Maja Stark stood as the winner of the major.
US Open is the toughest conditions we play in and yet I was still top ten. It was damn fun to be there with Maja when she won and it inspires, at the same time as it gives that little sting in the eye and the feeling that "damn, I would have liked to be there as the winner".
Do you think you can win this week?
Yes, I think so. I hit the ball incredibly well and personally, I think this course is incredibly fun to play. It's demanding from the tee and tricky, it definitely requires good play.
As support on the course, Grant has her boyfriend Pontus Samuelsson, who has also been her caddie lately.
It's nice, I think, but many would probably have said the opposite. It helps me to get a little more perspective on it and I can tell him exactly how I feel. Like, damn, now it feels like crap. Then you have someone next to you who says "but I still like you".
Five Swedes are participating in the major, which is held every year in French Évian-les-Bains.
Their start times for Thursday's opening round:
8.00: Maja Stark.
8.12: Madelene Sagström.
8.24: Anna Nordqvist.
13.12: Ingrid Lindblad.
13.24: Linn Grant.
