Unlocking Robert MacIntyre’s Driving Secrets with Me and My Golf

Fresh off a solo second-place finish at Oakmont, Robert MacIntyre joined Piers and Andy from @MeAndMyGolf to dive into his “driving secrets” and see how he ranks inside the top 25 in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee on the PGA TOUR.*

*Strokes Gained: Off the Tee (as of July 7, 2025)

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So you’ll purposely miss the middle of the face. Yeah. Okay. The amateurs do that naturally by the way. A lot of the time I do all the time by the way. I knew it was a good idea. There it is. There you go. Bob, look, your your long game is incredible. Your iron play is great. Your driving’s really good as well. Pretty accurate. Let’s talk about what you maybe what you do different with the driver compared to the iron. The driver is a sort of a specialist club. Yep. What do you do different and and what makes you such a good driver at the golf ball? Um, again, probably in the last year, I’ve changed quite a lot in the driver. Um, for me, I used to spray the driver because I used my attack angle used to get too much up. I was always trying to hit it as far as I could. I just I see a lot of people getting told, hit up in it, hit up it, hit up it. But once you do that, you lose control. So for me it’s I’m not shy on hitting up in it. Like I can get three up, four up, but again I have to reset. And when I reset, it’s all about try to get it as neutral as I can. Not down in it, not up in it. Almost try to find the zero um attack. So that then once I’ve got that, I know that I’m not going to overdo the up. Whereas if I just keep hitting up up, it’s going to end up four, five, six up at times. So, for me, it’s about resetting and going zero. Um, and then another little thing that I do is I wouldn’t advise it at home, but I I change strike location on the on the driver face, okay? For wind direction, shot shape, whatever is needed, I’ll change whether it’s out the toe, out the heel, for the miss, I vary. So, you’ll purposely miss the middle of the face. Yeah. Okay. The amateurs do that naturally, by the way, a lot of the time. Yeah, I do all the time. I knew it was a good idea. I mean, we need to go into that a little bit, obviously. Yeah. So, it all started when the wind for me was off the right for a righthander, wind off the left, and I felt I couldn’t draw it enough into the wind because the spin would come off it. If I was trying to shut it down, I’d launch it low, spin would be off it, dive out the sky. We came to the thing. Have you ever tried to hit it out the toe? because the gear effect on the driver will create that curvature without the added um draw. And I said no. I was a we bit scared at the start and teed it up and it looks it looked wild and I mean now it’s it’s a constant I detest hitting out the heel. So now when I’m hitting a driver, you’ll see me align the toe all the time. Okay. Because my my fear is hitting that left ball, okay? um that I get stuck underneath. We’ve got to see it. Let’s see this. This is This is cool. I did not know this. I didn’t know this at all about you. Obviously Liam brought that to the table as well. It’s obviously a Scottish thing and obviously it was more I think it was at St. Andrews the old course the back nine winds always off the right hand side and I couldn’t draw it enough and they were like just hit with the toe and I’m like it sounds easier doesn’t it? It sounds so you’re just at the toe is that is that so yeah. So my tendency is I get I go on my toes I fall closer to it it’s like this. So the heel’s exposed. So I literally just line it up. It depends how much I’m trying to move it. Obviously you don’t want it too far out the toe. Then it loses you lose all power through the ball. Um but literally line it up halfway between the the edge of the club on the toe and the center marker of the driver and then I just swing it. I don’t really worry too much. It just it will move left to right. That’s That’s pretty cool though. because you would I think you would think there’d be so many players including good players would be going I never want to hit out the toe and yet you’re like really comfortable with it. You know what it’s going to do and it’s yeah I love it. Just me I’m a higher spinner um of the driver so I like to when I’m getting fetted for a driver I’m not I’m not the ultimate I don’t want it going as far as I can or I do want it going as somewhat as far as I can but I want control. Um, so if I’m getting fetty for a driver, I want it spinning 25 26 because I’ve got the speed. I don’t need to worry about the speed. So if I get fitted at 2526, when I hit it with the toe and I get that draw, it’ll drop to 2122. But what it does is keeps it in the sky. When I’m when I used to get fitted and I was down at 22 for a good one, try to hit it as far as I could. The minute I try to draw it, it would drop to 18 1 N and then it’s out the sky. There’s no control. So So golf ball is huge for you, isn’t it? Yeah, I had a story about how you changed into this golf ball. I remember being a Zoom call after the RDER Cup um with my whole team, a lot of them living in England. I’m up in Scotland, one of the guys in Austria on a Zoom and I said after the RDER Cup, I was like talking through things and it just kept coming to my my head. I’m like, I need to change golf ball. I need to change golf ball. But I was happy enough in the golf ball I was I was using. But the RDER Cup, my ball wasn’t stopping. Hitting in elevated greens with seven irons wouldn’t stop. And I remember the seven iron I hit into the 10th. Marcus Simone. Yeah. In in Rome and Rosie hit the exact Justin Rose hit the exact same shot. I got up there. He’s right next to the hole. My balls ran through the green and I’m like that ball’s not stopping quick enough. So on a Zoom call said, “Guys, I think I need to change golf ball.” and Simon and Stuart, two coaches, stood up, actually stood up off their chair and started clapping. They were like, “We’re waiting on you to to realize that.” And ever since I sometimes still tweak between the Prov1 and Prov1X, depending on how firm, if the golf wind is brick hard, I’ll go to the the X just for that extra bit of spin and height. That’s pretty cool. That’s pretty cool. So, you’re someone who likes to We spoke to you before about your game. And you like to work it both ways, but you like to sort of almost have your calibration as 0 0. Y um that allows you to create the freedom off. You mentioned the attack angle here as well. What is it in your technique that you’ve done that’s going to allow you to get away from hitting too much up that allows you to to maintain that sort of zero attack angle for you as well? I I used to set up I used to be a lot like this, which obviously creates the the upward Yeah. strike. Um, and what we done to to level it out, to over exaggerate it, to get it back to almost the feeling I’m hitting down because I was four or five up in it. Um, I I used to set up and feel as though my shoulders, everything’s level, like I’m not tilted back, but I still will be because the ball’s up in my stance. Was I used to set up and then all I done was I would hover it. So that then it’s almost like jumping. If you’re going to jump, you you’re going to be centered. you’re not going to jump and you’ll fall over. So, what we done was we’d set up I’m tilted, but what I would do to to kind of level it out was I would lift it, lift the driver to start with, just to sort of neutralize the whole neutralize the the tilt. And you can see when you did that, I’m looking at that. You can do that again. So, it’s there and then I I’ll So, the the right shoulder goes down a bit, the left shoulder goes up a bit as a result. As you say, it levels it out, but it’s significant when you do that. Yeah. So that was to stop the attack angle getting two up and then control the club face is gone. When you were two up, would the ball go more right? Would you or did you just lose control? No, I would I would hit I would hit a lot blocks up the left and then once I’ve hit a few blocks, I would go, well, there’s trouble up the left. I don’t want that. And I would flip it. Yeah. So it was just to again out here in the US you want to you want a bit more height but for me a driver is it wants to go roughly 300 y 295 through the sky but for me I need the flight launching at roughly 10 um which is quite low for out here on the PJ tour. It’s more high launch low spin but again I’ve got to be able to play golf. Yeah. You found what works for you and you know there’s a lot of advice out there and look we’ll we’ll we’ve coached a lot of golfers and we’re telling a lot of golfers to create some tilts and that might be great for them but you found what works for you and that’s that’s part of just the game isn’t it? Exactly. A lot of amateur golfers are the other way. They’re down they’re inside over the top steep. So again we got a feel they can’t overexaggerate that if they’ve got that feel. So, so just quickly then maybe just hit hit one now where I know obviously we do want to we we’ve told everything that you want obviously with the launch angle. If you had to launch it up now, no problem. Without tilting it, what how do you do that or do you tilt it? No, I would tilt it if I was going to launch one if I was going to hit one further. Yeah. Or trying to carry something at 305. Yeah. Okay. Um, I would tee it up and I wouldn’t be scared to take it onto my left side, get as far away from the golf ball as I can just to create the speed. But again, when you’re trying to hit it as far as you can, you do need to launch, you need to launch higher, spin down. So, if you normally when you if you strike it well and you launch it a little bit higher, the spin will come down. Um, so again, very similar setup. I would line it up slightly out the toe because I want the spin down. Um, I would have a slight tilt, but not too much, just enough. And then I would just from the top I would just swing hard. I’ve got those are the pools today. We are standing here in the rain and talking. So, we’ll let you off for that one. Scotland is used to Let’s have Let’s have another one of those. Let’s have another one of those. it. I think just as you’re doing this as well, I think it’s interesting that whenever we speak to really good players like yourself that as soon as you match an intention of what you want, your body kind of organizes itself into it without even almost thinking about it. So, it’s like, oh, there’s a bunker there 305 and you know, Mike said to you, you got to carry it and oh, no, no problem. And suddenly, you’re almost into that. And there’ll be things you do in the swing without even knowing what you’re going to do. I actually do a funny thing in my pre-shot before I play. So, if I’m hitting a shot and I’m hitting a if I’m hitting a draw, normally I’ll I’ll do the pre-shot routine this side of the ball to so that I’m seeing the golf ball going up the left like a David Beckham free kick then almost similar. So then if I’m if I’m going to hit a fade, I’ll do the opposite. I’ll come over this side and I’ll cuz then I’m looking away from that and I’m seeing it’s going to start up there and then if I’m just going to hit one normal, it’s in it’s in the middle. So good. I’ve never heard that and I love that. We’re stealing it now. Can we steal that? Monday’s video will be all about that. That’s brilliant. That’s That’s so good. That’s so good. So, if I’m going to hit a fade here, it would be I’d be here and I’d be swinging towards the ball, but I’d just be looking at obviously visualizing what’s going to happen. I’m going to start that up the left, up the right, and and and peel it back to the left. And then when I stand here, I don’t stand right behind it. I’ll stand just left and I walk in in that angle as well. So, so everything that I’m doing is is creating that you’re feeding the fade on. That’s why you hit the first two not so good because you didn’t do that routine. And this is the opposite. I’ll line this out the middle knowing that if I’m going to miss this, I’m going to heal it. It’s so interesting though that isn’t it that you are using what you know about the technology of the golf club to help create the shapes that you want. And it’s almost like you want it to be a little bit out the heel maybe in that shot there because you know at least it’s going to peel back, isn’t it? Do me the draw. Do me the draw. I want to see this from this um this routine here. One thing I like as well is what what Bob’s doing is he’s allowing for his tendency that that toe you know you know you move forward slightly. So, you’re just allowing for that tendency as well. And I think a lot of amateur golfers who slice it and heal it, put that have a go at that if they know that they’re maybe slightly over the top or move forward. What a brilliant little thing they can do on the golf course that can help them find the middle a bit more. Yeah. Yeah. There’s little things that we do that I mean, we still get the same thoughts as every amateur golfer. I mean, I remember when in Canada I knocked the 15T putt for birdie on 18 2 and 1/2 ft by and I couldn’t stop thinking about missing the putt. We’re humans, but you got to try and think about the million of two putts, two foot putts you’ve hit. And And is that what you did? Yeah. You went into You went into that, right? I just went into You don’t You don’t miss these. You’re the best from two feet in the world along with everyone else on two. Yeah. Love it. Okay, what shot we playing here? This is a draw. This is a draw. Off that left bunker. So the draw, I just aim up the left wing and then out the toe. I don’t change setup too much when I’m unless I’m really trying to hook it. But got it drawing pulling everything today. It’s obviously a better line in from there. The um we obviously had the pleasure of filming with you earlier with Iron and we said we were going to do driver and I’m going to throw you under the bus a little bit here. You said you had a few nuggets that you weren’t sure whether you wanted to share. Have you I’m sure that they were probably that the strike location’s the that was okay. That’s my favorite. That’s the one that you’ve given you’ve given us two. Phenomenal. Is there a third? The pre-shotss the pre-shot that can a lot of people know that already from speaking to psychologist and stuff. But we were not very good though because we didn’t know that. The um strike location I feels that’s the one for a good for a good player. That’s the Yeah, that’s really good. The problem is though, I’ve played a lot of matches against Matti now and I’ve given him a few too many driver tips and I can’t beat him. Really? He’s got Mike’s got you. Yeah. Do give us Let’s just maybe hit one more with a scenario. Now, it’d be interesting to see what your take is on this one because I think a lot of golfers that we’ve ever spoken to who are really good again, they will say if the if we put them in a situation maybe like this, which is really quite a tight fairway, this is, you know, we’ve got to be in the fairway. It’s Oakmont style rough. You’ve got to make a par on the last to win. You’ve got it the fair, but you got to hit driver as well. What do you What is your mindset? Do you have a shot that you would go to? Yeah. Or do you have a I’m just going to commit in full send? No. So, I mean, at Oakmont, it was so tight and the rough was so penal that like I like to shape it both ways, but it got to a point it’s it’s that brutal of a consequence. If you miss a fairway, it’s too it’s so punishing that I felt like you had to hit a shape almost as much shape as you possibly could so that you knew right I can aim here and no matter how much I moved that golf ball, it’s never going past that edge of the fairway. Yeah. So, what I done at Oakmont, I’ve only ever done it once one other time in my life and that was at Desert Springs Tour School in 2017. End of 2017. first only time at tour school I was struggling with the driver and I said to my dad I’m just going to slice my way around this golf course just to find the fairway and that’s what I done at Oakmont every shot I just hit a fade big fade because I knew that it’s never going to go I’m going to fade it I’m going to fade it as hard as I can but it’s never going to go too far but I know it’s going to fade and it worked an absolute treat I love that and we’ve spoke to a lot of golfers around this and what you’re taking then is you’re you’re making the golf ball do something instead of hit it standing up there and go well I’m going to hit this it could miss right it could miss left which way is it going to go I love the fact that you’re going right I’m going to make this golf ball maybe start it down the right hand side and just make it cut back into the fairway you have a little bit more control of what’s going on then because you know it’s going to do a certain thing as opposed to leave it to the whereas normally I would aim this if I’m playing and it’s not too penal I’ll aim that right up the middle of the fairway and just try and hit as straight as I can and not really knowing that right if I mish hit it heal it it’ll spin a little bit to the left side if I hit a a good one it’ll draw over to the right half but it gives me that big margin whereas when it was when it’s so penal and it’s a you need to hit the fairway I always go to a big cut if I can if it’s not too tight if it’s too tight then it’s a low tea and just hit a stock one cuz that’s that’s another good point that you should sometimes do that as well can’t you you’ll be doing that again I think probably plenty of times probably this week exactly Let’s see it. Yeah. How how much is this going to curve? Do you predict a number or do you just want to make sure it does well? I just curve it as much as I can. I mean, here it’s difficult cuz there’s trees overhanging in the right, but I don’t know. I don’t know how much I’m going to curve it. But I know when it’s tight and I need to I need to fade it. I’ll just aim until I’m comfortable. Yeah. And then I’ll just swing at it. And I’ve hit that many golf balls now that I know what’s what what should result. So, so in this instance here, as you say, with those trees there, you’d use as much of this teeing ground. So, I would I would tee it up as tight to the left side. Um, again, just the pre-shot would be over from this side fading. This will be a not too big a fade, but a good 20 yards. Um, got the bridge off the left as well, which is which is obviously not helping. Not helping that, but that’s fine. Again, line up about the middle knowing that if I’m going to miss it, I’m going to hit hit it out the heel. There it is. There you go. That’s moving. That’s moving a lot in the air. That is 15 yards 20. But again, when you’re just trying to find a fairway, you’re not worried about it going no 285 yards. If I hit a 3-wood and I hit one good, it’s 275. You miss that, you’re 260. Whereas you miss a driver, at least it’s down there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It’s good. That was awesome. Great stuff. in there. I love that. Steal a few of those. But yeah, awesome to watch. They’ll be the next three videos covered for us now. We’re not going to do any prep work. Thanks, man. Thank you.