Robert MacIntyre Press Conference in the preview of the Genesis Scottish Open
Okay, I’m delighted to welcome our defending champion, Robert McIntyre, back to the Genesis Scottish Open. Bob, a slightly different start to the press conference as we have your bag there to the right, which is looking lovely, but can you just maybe give us an update on a special I guess uh piece of piece of uh equipment for you? Yeah. Yeah, it’s obviously the my name’s Doy Tarton. um M andD obviously we’ve got Scott Stewart who passed away last year um and I’ve just tried to be someone that raises awareness of M and D to be honest with you and um with the bag this year we’ve kind of tried to we go to certain events we try and make it special for the event and um this year obviously with the passing of Scott. Um, also I’ve got a close family friend who’s now also got it. Um, we thought, well, what a place to do it. Um, just to try and just I mean, I try my best to to raise awareness and there are so many other people. I mean, Scott done a great job of raising awareness of it and raising unbelievable amounts of money for the cause and I mean, I’m just a small part of that that’s try to keep keep it going. I know you’ve just come off the golf course and you’re on the ninth and there’s a grand stand there now as well named after Scott in his uh in his memory. And how special was that to to be there today and to have this with you this week? Yeah, it was nice. I mean, obviously it’s a it’s a sad a sad occasion, but um obviously his family um his wife, his parents were there as well um when we opened it and yeah, it’s just it’s just trying to battle a a hellish disease to be honest with you and I mean I keep saying it I’m just a small small part of of that I try my best to raise as much money awareness everything that we can to to try and battle this this disease I’m sure though last year you gave him some great pleasure in watching you hold that putt on the last at 18 now we’re back here a year later just what was that moment like for you and having your family and friends and you know the Scottish crowds here to witness that. No, it was unbelievable. I mean that’s obviously the one in Canada was was special my dad but I mean winning the Scottish Open was above it. Um as a kid growing up obviously I keep saying I watched the um Scottish Open at Loman and stuff. I just dreamed of as a kid to play in it and then once I got playing in it I’m thinking let’s win this thing and obviously coming close but last year to when that part drops I mean I keep watching it over and over again when I when I was struggling my pattern I mean my pattern goes up and down like a roller coaster and when I struggle I just I relive these moments and I remember the the highs that when when the putter does come it it really it really turns it on. Okay, we’ll start with questions from the floor. So, Craig, Bob, when we spoke to you at the media day for this tournament, you sort of spoke about how you’ve got this one in the bag now and maybe goals will change a little bit and it might be maybe more of a prep for next week, but now you’re here and you see the pictures and you have the memories. Has that changed? Again, I’m coming here to win the Scottish Open. I mean, it is the biggest golf tournament outside of the major championships for me. Um, I’ve won it once, but every time I pitch up here, I want to win it again. And I’ve prepared as well as I could. Um, obviously I took a few days down playing Lynx Golf at Mrananish, and just to get used to hitting the shots again, seeing the ball running. Um, so yeah, I’m I’m not looking at next week. I’m looking to try and defend this title. Martin, Bob, this event’s been a huge part of your journey over the last few years. Can you just talk a little bit about how you felt when you first came here compared to how you feel now? Yeah, obviously my first year in 2019, I got paired with Rory and Ricky um first round and the nerves in that first te with the crowd and the expectation somewhat that I had in myself. I mean the nerves were unbelievable. Um but I remember how I responded. I mean I birded the first hole and it just kind of I try and take everything in my stride as much as I can. You can’t when you’re doing this, you can’t shy away from from anything. If you get an opportunity, you just the way I do it, I just go straight at it. If you’ve got a chance, just straight at it. What’s the worst can happen? You fail. And I feel like that’s the way I’ve done my whole career. I’ve just went so far. I’ve just slow and steady. You get obviously up and down within the year, but I set goals. I set many goals. as I set targets within the year for future years and just just keep slowly going at a path. But the biggest thing is dayto-day have the right people around you and obviously people come into the team, people go out the team, but it’s just about having the same everyone in the team has to have the same target and the same goals. And I think I’ve got a good team around me that we can we can keep pushing now. And I mean the next target is to win a major. You often talk about yourself as a wee boy for open. How does a wee boy through sort of look at those giant images and and playing the world number one Scottish shepher? Do you still pinch yourself a little bit? I do, but I hate seeing myself and I hate listening to myself. Um that’s one of the rules when I’m in a house and there’s a a clip of me. It’s like I don’t want to hear myself speak. Um but yeah, it’s part of it. I suppose it’s um yeah, I don’t really worry about all the photos and stuff. I don’t really look. I just go and play my golf. But it’s it is surreal to know that I’ve the path that I’ve gone on and the I suppose the the results that I’ve had. I mean, as a kid growing up, you hit putts on putting greens to to win this, to win that, and I mean, to be actually in the golf tournaments and have chances to really live them moments is it’s all I can ask for. I mean, whether you win it or not, it’s like you’ve got the chance and they’re special. Okay, just straight ahead, Bob. Um, in terms of the win last year coming into this year and the psychology of it, what does it mean in terms of is there pressure off a little bit or is there more expectation? Talk to us a little bit about the psychology of what that win meant going into this year. Yeah, I think the pressure is off obviously um with me saying how much I wanted this golf tournament, wanted to win this tournament. Um I think the pressure is off on that side of it because I have won it now but the expectation is not from me from outside and the fans and not people within my team cuz they know it’s a process and we do certain things but from the outside the expectation is through the roof but again I can’t control that. I just got to go out there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday prepare as well as I can. I feel I’ve done that this week and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we give our best shot. Hopefully come Sunday on the back nine. We just have to kind of flip the coin or roll the dice, however you want to say it. And if it falls your way, perfect like it did last year. But again, you just keep give yourself opportunities and you’re going to fall across a line at some point. You going down to Nick? Hi, Robert. You all right? You all right? A bit of a throwback question, Paul, but your your first round as a pro was that back in Jordan or Q8 or whatever was it what 78 was it if I remember? All right. Just given what you’ve achieved since then. I mean, can you just talk about that kind of moment as a a young lad, first pro event and it starts like that? Yeah. Again, it was I was going out to the Mina tour it was at the time and I was going to go as an amateur. Um, and then I just phoned up one day and I just said, “What’s the point going out here not making any money?” Um, so we just decided to turn pro and I went out there again. It’s just small stages in your career. I was really really nervous. um different environment and yeah I think it was 78 but then I had two good scores backing that up finish second or third um in the tournament had a week off again in Dubai and then went on to win win win the next week and yeah it’s just I’m someone that’s not scared to take risks I’m not someone that’s scared to make a big decision but they’re not rash they’re calculated What I do is as much as I play golf with feel and stuff, the bigger picture is calculated and it’s slow and steady rather than just a big jump into the middle and let’s see what happens. It’s always we build things. Um like when I was an amateur, I changed golf swing slightly. still kept my DNA, changed it, get the flight up, but it was to prepare for playing on the tour because it’s a different style of golf. This week it’s completely different. It’s a little bit firmer. So, you can go back to old school, drive it low, and but overall my whole career, I’ve just slowly just navigated it. We go and see what the challenge is going to be like, right? It’s a step up. We have to do this better, go to the next level. And you just you work things out cuz I think the next day you shot the light suit. I think does that kind of illustrate your kind of tenacity and kind of that you’ve shown in subsequent years? It is. It’s just again it’s just it’s just working out what you need, what works and it’s just watching what people that are better than you do. And it’s trying to see if you can kind of use any of that to help you. So it’s just it’s just a learning curve. It’s just keep improving, keep learning, and the results will take care of themselves. Doug, do you understand him? Okay. I understand him better than you. Two things, Bob. Have you ever done anything rash? Um, I mean, I make rash decisions on a golf course when I’m I lose my temper and stuff um on a shinty pitch, but when it comes to Well, yes, I have made I’ve made one rash rash decision in the last probably four years, 5 years. That was when I was changing coach obviously was working with Simon. changed again. Done it two weeks and I remember Simon saying, “I think you’re you’re firing the wrong man.” And um it was a breaking up the line while he was saying it. He thought I didn’t hear it. And then I phoned him 2 weeks later and I was tail between my legs saying, “Look, Simon, you were right. Can I come back?” And yeah, here we are still working together. So that was a rash decision. Um, but in the long term stuff, no, everything’s between me, study, Dell, the whole team around me. We just we sit down, we think about it, we look at stats, everything’s that side of it’s calculated and then we just try and go with a decision and and live by it. And and secondly, for for you and really for all the players, what is the difference in either anticipation or or optimism about the major season when you’re heading into Augusta, the first one, compared with when you’re getting ready for the Open, the last one? Yeah, for me, I mean, I normally got off to a slow start in my season. I did the last few years. Um, it’s just different. just the season is log jammed. I mean, if you looked at the the locker room on the kind of Sunday at the Travelers, everyone was dying to go home because it was just a long stretch for me. I was out there 11 weeks, played 10 out 11, and I was just I was running on empty, but you’re trying your best. It’s such a big golf tournament, you’re trying your best. And it’s difficult with how kind of condensed the season is now on the PJ tour especially. I mean, it’s just it’s log jammed and you just feel that you can’t take a week off because if you take a week off, you’re going backwards and it’s difficult that side of it, but you got to trust your schedule. You’ve got to trust that you’re going to get your run. But it is it is very very tiring. Martin Bob, you’re obviously at Mark Haranish last week. Was that useful for this week? And also was unfair on you when I said that Belle Robertson was still the sort of bigger Agen but legend. She is a legend actually seen her. She came out and seen me um when we were playing the old course um at Mahrah. But I just went there. I remember coming back last year and I went to Trun to see Trun um a couple of days before coming here and it was amazing how much the golf ball was moving in a 20 mph wind and that’s the reason I went to my grandanish. It was like, “Go there, hit the same shots that you normally hit, but just let’s watch how much this thing is going to move.” And it was just to get that that feel, that sea air, the heavy wind hitting the golf ball again. And just getting your eyes seeing what you used to see. Whereas when I’m playing in America, I mean, I’m hitting the ball up there, landed the number, and normally it stops. So, it’s just a completely different style of golf. But since I’ve come back, since I’ve played more PJ tour now, the more I come back here and play links golf, I enjoy it way more than I used to because it used to just be the norm. Okay. And we’re going to wrap up with Callum. Just kind of following on from what Martin was saying there, you know, in terms of the experience at Maharan, how you got on with the T-shot at the first? Split the fairway both times. Um, it’s all right for me. I can start it way right and let it ride the wind. The wind it was down out the right so it wasn’t wasn’t too much a problem but I mean it’s a spectacular opening hole. Um but no they were brilliant to us. Few of us went down and played and it was it was a good kind of day and a half we had down there. Just finally you know from a personal point of view it’s hard to win any tour of them out in this tour but to do it back to back if you could do that. I mean how much would that mean to you? That’ be unbelievable. I mean, I want to keep this trophy every year until I stop playing. Um, but again, I pitch up here and I want to win it. I mean, it’s the Scottish Open. It is my almost flagship event outside of the major and every time I pitch up here, I want to win it. And I hope if I don’t win it, a Scottish player wins it. Um, and it’s just it’s a special special golf tournament with a unbelievable field. Bob, thank you for your time and we wish you well this week. Thank you.
1 Comment
Would be magic if he could retain title ❤😅