MacIntyre: “Team Europe will be ready for the moment”

The Scottish press conference two days ahead the start of the Open Championship 2025

Good morning everybody. Delighted to be joined by Scotland’s Robert McIntyre in the interview room this morning. Bob, you are tied six on your debut in the championship in 2019. I know you love this course. How excited are you for the week? Yeah, I’m looking forward to it. Um, looks a bit greener than last week, so that’s a positive for me. Um, but no, I love coming back here. Fans are unbelievable. And, um, yeah, just preparing as well as I can to get the tournament started. Okay, we go to the floor for for questions. Just Mike one here. Bob, we’ve seen some putters that are great at on the tour level when they come over to play Lynx Golf struggle a little bit. Just wondering what the unique differences or challenges are of putting, you know, on an open championship course compared to America. H I mean, so different. Um, for one, the grass is different, the slopes are more subtle. Um, when you play on regular tour, whether it’s PJ Tour, European DP World Tour, the slopes are normally just they’re they’re there. They’re they’re obvious. Um, whereas you play Lynx Golf and it’s very subtle. you might. So I use endpoint and I think the reason that I normally put well on link screens is because I use the endpoint not as a a science not as a I’ve not got the answer. I use it as a guide and then I go down and look at it because there is so many I mean you use a point in the putting greens and you can maybe feel a one and you move it four or five in and it’s a one and a half like it’s just so many subtle moves. Um, so I think that’s a big factor. And also the wind. The wind is if it blows 20 mph. Um, it’s hard to stand the way you normally stand cuz you’ve got to try and brace yourself for the wind. It’s that’s gusting. It’s not just a constant that it just buffers. So then you start moving. But yeah, thankfully I’m I’m used to that. Uh, Craig, Mike 3. Bob, very quickly before I ask a question, how did you get on with your seasickness yesterday? It was all right. It was nice and calm. When you came here the last time, you were able to kind of freewheel in as this youngster we s no cares. Now you’re being talked about as one of the the tournament favorites. A lot of people’s picked to win it. Can you just give us an idea of the difference and in your own mind with the pressures of that kind of thing? Yeah, I mean this week’s completely different to what I had last week. I feel I still feel like I’ve got no real care. Um, yeah, people might have tipped me to win it, but to be honest, there’s so many guys this week that can can win this tournament. So, I I’m going to go out there and enjoy playing Royal Port Rush again and um give it my absolute best and that’s all I can that’s all I can guarantee. Uh, Martin, Bob, just go back to 2019. That was your major debut. Can you just talk about how you felt at the start of the week, how you grew into the week? Yeah, it was tough. I mean, stand on that first te the nerves because you’ve always dreamed of playing these. You’ve watched it on TV since you were a young kid. And I got to just live another dream. Um, and yeah, it was difficult, but I also got a little bit lucky when the I managed to finish just in time before the the proper storm came in in 2019. And then I remember sitting in the in the player dining and I’m just like I just keep blowing. I mean I thought the roof was coming off the place and I’m just like keep coming, keep coming. I just was watching it. Um watching me get further up the the leaderboard but yeah it’s it’s a different week this week but just looking forward to it. You’re playing with other Scots this morning. One of them is a hotel planner tour player. The other two are amateurs. What sort of advice will you have for them and what are you looking to get out for that round today? Yeah, I’m going to go and play 18 um because yesterday the beautiful sunshine um we couldn’t get out. So um yeah, 18 holes today and look I’ll give them any advice they want, but if they ask for it, I’ll give them advice. If they don’t, then that’s fine. I’m going to prepare still the same as as I try to every week. And yeah, we got to try and win win the open. Mike four at the back. Hi Bob. Um I know you were pretty frustrated that last week. I just wondered how well you’ve done with pulling the past in the past and how you have you progressed with that. Have you got better at it or were you always quite good at sort of leaving last week in last week? I’ve always been pretty good at that. Um, I think Sunday after the round I I picked apart some things that will help me going forward. Um, look, we don’t play much links golf. We play maybe four events if we’re lucky. Um, so I changed to to tightlist equipment in the start of last year, irons, and they’re brilliant. 99% of the time, but I hadn’t used them when they were when it was brick hard, firm, when there was hardly any grass. It was like sometimes your ball was sitting just on I don’t know, it was almost dirt like it was um so firm, so compacted and the irons I use are to help me get the club out the ground cuz I’m steep. Um and last week because it was brick hard, the club wouldn’t go in the ground. So, it was just the short irons I was struggling with. Once we picked that apart Sunday after the round, once I’d spoken to you guys and actually had calmed down and was thinking clear, it was like, right, there’s a learning curve. And then we spoke to people yesterday about how we can be ahead of the game for that happening. This week, it’s not going to happen. We’re having some rain, so it’s I mean, it’s greener already on the range. I’m seeing the strike going up the face. I’m seeing the ball flight going up in the sky. So a completely different week this week. John at the front. Bob, a month or so on from Oakmont. Um give us your reflections on that tremendous performance, but talk if you would a little bit more about that. Yeah, just a a brilliant performance. Um we were lucky that the the weather allowed us to play golf. Um the rain that came in softened it. Thankfully, no wind. um or it would have been absolute carnage. Um but thankfully it still allowed us to play play golf the way we probably should be playing golf and yeah I thought it was I thought it was an absolute brilliant effort when I finished. thought if someone beats that, fair play. And GJ played better on the week and um for me that’s as as good a performance as I can put in around probably the hardest golf course on the planet that we play. Uh Nick, hi Robert. You’ve always said, well, in recent years, Port Rush is probably one of your favorite links courses in the world. What is it about it? And was it kind of love at first sight kind of back in the day? Yeah, it’s just it’s how the golf course flows. It’s not so much just the holes. It’s it’s not nine holes one way, nine holes the other way. Um there is everything on this golf course visually. It’s obviously enclosed by the dunes either side. So you’ve got visuals of the tea. Um I just I played it when it was in the home internationals. Um and it just obviously six 17 and 18 have changed since. But as a newly designed golf holes in the modern game, I think these are as good as it gets when it’s been when they’ve been redesigned. I mean so many golf courses try and trick it up at this place. I mean, it’s a par five and a par four. Par five from the T-shot hitting down bunker on the right hitting back up the hill with a wind that’s normally off the right and then you got onto a little shelf and then you hit across the top of the hill. I just think the whole golf course is is absolutely beautiful to the eye but also plays plays absolutely brilliantly. You’ve got holes that you’ve got a chance and then you’ve got holes that you’re just to hang on. Mike three. Hi Bob. Um just that bit you you said before about clearing your mind um Sunday night. I mean when you go through the the technicalities of of your game one thing or another. How do you sort of decompress like did you you’re able to put the is there a point in the night when you can just like simply say forget it and you you you’re clearing your mind? Yeah, I’m pretty good. I tell everyone give me an hour. Um, I can go as mental as I want for an hour and then after that I just back to life. Um, so what what what you mean mental? Like you’re on your own. You just I can do whatever I want for an hour. I just anything that I want. Can break things. You can literally do whatever I want for an hour. But after that hour’s gone, it’s my job’s done. Right. like for an hour and a half before my round, two hours before my round, I’m preparing so nobody gets in my way. Like just warm up, stretching, gym work, all of that. So there is a what, five, six, seven, eight hour window that I’m working. And if you have a bad day at work, you’re going to be annoyed. It happens more often than not. That’s Do you know what I mean? So it happens more often than not for me as well. Um, but it’s just about once that’s gone. It’s been difficult in the past for me to reset, but nowadays there are so many golf tournaments and you don’t know what’s coming the next week and actually I thought Saturday, Sunday I played better than I did Thursday, Friday. Um, scores didn’t show that, but I wasn’t in the thick of it. It was kind of there was no buzz for me. I was the U draw kind of took that buzz away from it. I was on the wrong side and yeah, Sunday just wasn’t a good day. But I’m here this week and I’m I’m as ready as I can be. I just find one say that that fire though that fire is is what can be the difference in making you feel ready to win a major. Yeah, I mean that’s what you need. I’m fiery on the golf course when I’m in tournament rounds. I mean, I’ll drop I was going to say the odd, but a few bad words in there. Um, I’ll hit the bag. I’ll I’ll say some harsh things, but that’s what gets me going. If I walk around and I’m all happy, I’ve just made a double bogey or people are clapping, thanks very much. That’s not me. I’m needing to smash something up to or I rip a glove or I do something to to get that anger out. It’s just it’s better out than in for me. Some people it’s better holding it, but for me it’s get it out and then just do not let it affect the next shot. Simple. Okay, we’ll go to Mike one over here. Yeah, a previous question mentioned um the idea of giving advice uh to people. If someone came to you who had never played a Lynx round before and said, “Okay, I’m about to do it. What are the one or two things that are going to be really surprising for me or that are going to be the most different from kind of a technical side?” What would you say to them? Um if it’s a good player, I would It’s the ball flight. I’ve had a few people, a few Americans ask me, “How do you play Lynx golf?” And I’m not going to name names, but one of them hits it incredibly high. And he’s always said, “I’ve struggled on Lynx golf.” And I’ve played with them recently in America, and I’m watching his flight. And that it’s simple. That’s why you struggle on Lynx Golf. But again, if they’re only over here for a week, don’t change the world for one week. just hope that you’re going to get flat cam weather on that side of it and you can hit that ball as high as you can. But for me, it’s it’s the purest method of the game that we’ve got links golf. Um so many different ways to play it. It’s not just 155 yards, pitch 155 yards, keep it two yards right the pin. It’s not that. It’s the unpredictability of what that’s going to give us. I mean, you could tee off at 8:00 in the morning, beautiful sunshine, and then quart 8, there’s a storm coming in, you’re playing, the wind switched. So, it’s just unpredictable with the weather, but unpredictable with the bounces. And I think that’s what I love about it that if you’re out of position, I’ve got little rules that I keep that in links golf when it gets breezy, there’s certain things that you cannot do and there’s certain things that you have to do and it’s just Yeah, it’s I think it’s the best best way to play golf is links golf. Is there one or two examples on that list secret? A lot of guys that I’ve watched playing it that haven’t played it as much as I have make the mistakes and then I’m looking at it going, “You cannot do that.” Whereas for me, sometimes you can hit certain shots, but you you’re actually walking up there going, “That’s all right. That’s all right. We’ve got a chance from there.” Um, but yeah, it’s just I just love it and I think that’s why I’ve been brought up in it. I play it less now and I think I enjoy it more now than I I’ve ever done it. Brian at the front. Yeah, Bob, just on the the golf course itself, what are the big questions that the golf course asks you? Can you give us a few examples of some of the shots that you like might face and uh the difficulty of those? Yeah. and maybe some of those places where you say you have to hang on. Yeah, I just think it depends on the wind direction. I know yesterday was the same wind that we’re I think we’re going to have all week. Um today is a bit different, but you’ve got to take advantage of the holes that that give you the chance. par fives, drive par 4, and then you’ve got certain holes that you hang on like 16, um, 18. There’s I I just think links golf every hole there’s an opportunity to make a bogey or make a disaster. You get the go bushes, you’ve got thick, rough, wispy rough that I had a few last week. I’ve walked in there stupidly thinking I’ll get a seven iron on that. Hit it, it goes over my shoulder. It’s just wrapped the club. So, I just think every holder is a different test. But on links, if you hit the fairway off the tea, then you can maneuver the golf ball however you want. Draw, fade, wind direction, holding it into it. If you’re in the rough, it’s carnage. And it’s not carnage as in Oakmont carnage where I’m just getting a lob wedge on this. It’s carnage that guys are going to think I can hit six, five irons out of this rough and it wraps it and it goes sideways and that’s it’s just you got to think about it. Sometimes the shorter club will go further because you’ve got control of it. Josh at the back. Hi Bob. Um, obviously this week’s quite a big one for a lot of guys in terms of the RDER Cup with Beth Paige so close now. Just wondering where do you see the the current level of of European golf? I think it’s absolutely brilliant. Um, for me, I’ve had a a good a good spell in the US to get me right up there. But when you look at the amount of European winners on tour this year, um, it’s as good as ever. And the team’s going to be going to be ready to go in Beth Page. It’s going to be Yeah, we’re going to be it’s going to be tough. um obviously with the crowd, but it’s going to be the same as Rome that we’ve we’re in it together and as long as we’ve got each other, doesn’t matter what else is going on. Jim Bob, do you have any superstitions or any rituals you follow, you know, before a round or after a round? No, nothing like that. Just if anything, it’s just my marker. I’ll putt with it white side up. Um if I hold a putt early on or a decent 8 footer, I’ll keep it in the white. If it’s not going in, I’ll just flip it to the blue. That’s all. There’s nothing before the round, nothing nothing after. Just I don’t I don’t worry about that stuff.