Bob MacIntyre bowled up a day late for the Open. He was imagined to be right here early on Monday for a press convention, however needed to change his plans on the final minute after his victory within the Scottish Open on the Renaissance Membership in North Berwick.
“I don’t suppose I’ll be capable to get to Troon,” he stated that night time. “I don’t suppose I’ll be legally in a position to drive.”
He isn’t an enormous drinker, however determined to make an exception on Sunday. He was final seen within the clubhouse bar a while within the early hours with one arm round his father, Dougie, and the opposite on a silver punchbowl stuffed to the brim with good scotch.
MacIntyre appeared in fairly good trim when he lastly made it right here. If an evening on the lash appears a wierd technique to go about making ready for a significant, properly, as he says himself, life is simply too quick to let moments like that cross with out marking them. “If you’ve achieved a childhood dream, and also you’ve bought household and buddies there who’ve backed you ever because you had been a younger child, I believe it was fairly proper to go completely wild.”
MacIntyre has labored too arduous, fearful an excessive amount of, waited too lengthy, and the win meant an excessive amount of to him and his household. “I’d do it once more. It was simply one of many nice nights.”
It was his second win in his previous six begins, after his victory within the Canadian Open early final month. Tommy Fleetwood (twelfth) is 4 locations forward of him on this planet rankings, however given the shape he’s in, MacIntyre is the main British contender this week. It has been 25 years since a Scot (Paul Lawrie) received the Open, it had been 25 years, too, since a Scot (Colin Montgomerie) received the Scottish Open, till he did it.
MacIntyre grew up 70 or so miles up the coast in Oban, the place his father is the greenskeeper at Glencruitten. He just lately moved again to the UK after a six-month stretch within the US, which, he lastly determined, didn’t actually go well with him.
MacIntyre, 28in August, discovered lots about himself whereas he was overseas. He can let you know, to the very minute, when issues lastly clicked for him. It was in Could, when he was enjoying within the Myrtle Seaside Traditional. He had simply made a birdie on the first gap on Sunday and moved as much as two photographs off the lead as he chased his first win on the PGA Tour.
“All the pieces’s nice,” he instructed himself as he hit his tee shot straight down the center of the second fairway after which, abruptly, it actually wasn’t. He blew his second shot approach left, hacked out of the tough and took three putts to get in.
“Then I began considering ‘the match’s gone’ and the minute you do this your feelings are in all places. You lose all management of your self, your thought course of, your contact, all the pieces, it’s all gone.” He completed in a tie for thirteenth.
The left-hander spent the subsequent few days chewing it throughout and eventually determined what had gone incorrect. “What occurred at Myrtle Seaside taught me to not try to win golf tournaments.”
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Which sounds a reasonably unusual technique to go about issues once you make a residing making an attempt to do precisely that. However those that know MacIntyre say he’s the type who was all the time overthinking issues. On the PGA Championship the subsequent week, his solely ambition was to keep away from getting forward of himself – “simply keep within the struggle, and keep calm”. He performed fairly poorly regardless of it, till an eagle on the 72nd gap lifted him into eighth place.
“That was an actual gentle swap that made me suppose, ‘ what, the golf recreation isn’t the issue, I’m the issue’.” Name it the Dao of Bob. “There’s no magic recipe to it,” he says. “I simply keep out of my very own approach.”
Since he stopped worrying, he has began successful. He had been dreaming about successful the Scottish Open for so long as he can bear in mind and had been robbed of it when Rory McIlroy beat him with back-to-back birdies on the final two holes in 2023. This time round he discovered he felt “as relaxed as I’ve ever been for a golf match, no nerves, nothing, I used to be simply making an attempt to get pleasure from myself”.
Nothing has modified for this week. “It’s the very same once more, I’m very relaxed. I’m having fun with time with family and friends again on the home after I’m not on the course and I’m having fun with time with my crew after I’m on the course.
“On the primary tee we’ll begin off from degree par. I’ve bought as a lot likelihood as everybody else within the area. Similar because it was final week. It’s nearly getting in that place and seeing the place the playing cards fall. Hopefully, come Sunday, I’ve bought an opportunity and that’s all I need.”
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