The last thing Kiera Floyd (pictured) did before beginning her second round at the Investec SA Women's Open was to casually drop a ball onto the putting green surface adjoining the first tee, take quick aim at the hole 25 feet away and stroke the ball. It never looked like missing.

It's always a great feeling and the 21-year-old did what we all do. We tend to unconsciously look around to see who was watching, and as she walked to fetch her ball out of the hole she did that, but on a putting green filled with elite women's golfers everyone was busy on their own putting strokes.

Still, she took that confidence onto the front nine where she one-putted six greens and needed only 10 putts on the way to a 31. Later on – it was a sweltering Friday afternoon – she came home in 41, but booked her spot for the weekend right on the cutline.

Missing the cut, by one shot, were two of South Africa's big guns – five-time champion Lee-Anne Pace and the country's highest-ranked player, Casandra Alexander, who arrived at Royal Cape ranked 40th in the world.

As sport has evolved, things have accelerated in terms of support staff and back-up. When the Springboks won the 2023 Rugby World Cup there were 31 players and 27 support staff, and these days sports psychologists are among the first names written down when travelling.

Golfers themselves now work with sports psychologists and even different kinds of coaches, and some old-timers will argue that it hasn't made the player any better. Golfers are still two-and-three-putting and the pressure remains.

The mortals amongst us will know the feeling. You have a putt on your 18th hole to break 100, 90 or 80. Even a five-footer and the hole shrinks to the size of a pea. Perhaps, nine times out of 10 you'd make the putt with your eyes closed on the putting green.

In professional golf, one of the most intimate, raw places to be is alongside the 18th hole on a Friday afternoon. Most often those who arrive at the tee know what they have to shoot to make the cut. Many times it comes down to the final putt.

Alexander stood at the 18th, having dropped three shots from the 15th to 17th, taking her from a safe -4 to -1, and suddenly needing a birdie at the last to make the cut. One can only imagine, and sympathise, what her thoughts were.

She gave herself a chance by leaving herself a 20-footer for birdie. Once you start adding in the 'I have to make this putt otherwise I'm out' voices in the head, it doubles the distance and shrinks the hole. Her putt slid past below the hole.

Pace needed a birdie-birdie finish and got her three at the 17th, but found herself needing to hole from the 18th fringe to make the cut and missed, also by one shot. Earlier in Thursday's first round, she hit a putt and it went right in the middle of the cup at the perfect speed … but then bounced straight back out. It was a freakish moment, but in hindsight it cost her the cut. Cruel, cruel, golf.

When Brandon Stone closed with a 60 to win the 2018 Scottish Open, he had a putt to record the DP World Tour's first 59. And he knew it. The pressure wasn't in winning the event – he was five shots clear when standing over the putt. He settled for a two-putt and the victory plaudits.

When the crowds had left the Gullane Golf Club and dusk was turning to darkness, he went back onto the 18th and lined up the eight-footer from the exact position he had faced in regulation play. It never looked like missing.

That's what pressure does. And golf is one of those sports where the pressure is amplified more than any other – at all levels.

Professional golfers will tell you that there's more pressure standing over an eight-foot put when you know that it's to make the cut than to win a tournament. And when that putt is to stay around for the weekend in your own national Open, we mere onlookers can't begin to understand what pressure they're under. If only every such putt was like that 25-footer on the practice green that Floyd made look easy.

Gary Lemke