Robert MacIntyre Before Ryder Cup 2025: Family, Focus, Bethpage

Robert MacIntyre speaks ahead of his second Ryder Cup, sharing why Europe’s team room “feels like family,” how his comfort level has jumped since Rome, and why he’s happy to “walk behind Rory” as a leader. He breaks down handling the New York crowd (“control what you can control”), his equipment changes since 2023, and the trust running through Europe’s players, vice captains, caddies and staff. Plus: warm-up matches, potential pairings, and keeping politics out of the picture — it’s one mission for Team Europe at Bethpage Black.

Robert McIntyre joins us now at the 2025 RDER Cup. Robert, welcome to your second RDER Cup. We’ll jump right into questions. Martin Bob, I know they’re not as big as the the matches you’ve got coming up over the next three days, but how did you get on with Mike Burrows in your warm-up matches? 2-1 victory. Um, no, it was great fun. good um good time to get down and and see courses for next year. Um Aonamink and obviously Shinkok and then a little treat at uh Pine Valley. So no, it was it was great fun, good prep. Um obviously my coach Simon came over. So yeah, it’s been it’s been good. And then we’ve got to work coming back here. How do you feel your role has been in the team room this time compared to two years ago? Um, I don’t think it’s changed at all. I think my comfort levels within the team has changed. Um, last time obviously I was playing mainly on the European tour. Um, then you’re stepping into a room of guys like Rory, John, um, Rosie. But thankfully egos go out the window when you go into that European team room and um everyone comes together and it’s it’s it’s a lot more I’m a lot more comfortable this year than I was last year because it was a little bit daunting last time but um no they made you feel welcome then and I mean now it feels like we’ve got a better bond right here with Mark Robert um just curious other than the obvious with Rory on the golf of course, what what what does he bring to this team? What does he mean to this team beyond the obvious? I mean, I’m not sure. He’s he’s a leader. Um, he’s potentially the greatest European golfer of all time. I mean, these things speak for himself. I’ve looked up to him since I was young. Um, and I’ve got no problem walking behind Rory Maroy if he’s leading the charge. I mean, he’s a guy that’s that’s special to the game of golf, but very special to the European side. Over to Luke on two. Uh, Bob over here. Yeah. Um, when you have like a big putt to half a hole or win a match or the first T-shot, like what is literally going through your brain? Like, are you thinking a swing thought? What are you thinking about? Nothing. Like it’s like what is going on in that? It depends. It depends on the situation. It depends on how you’re feeling. It depends on on a lot of things. It can look we’ve got things to handle different situations. Um and yeah, it just varies. It doesn’t there’s not one way that fits all. It’s very much um for that moment. Sometimes it can be a positive thought. It can be something you say to yourself. It can be an outside thing that Mike McCaddy can can do to help me. Um, so yeah, look, there’s lots of different kind of strategies to deal with that. Doug, go ahead over here. Bob, how have you how have you prepared to handle what kind of crowd reaction you’re going to get this week? Did you get more value from the VR set or from the weekend at Caves Valley? Yeah. I know. I just play golf. The crowds the crowd’s here to watch us at the end of the day. Um whether they’re for you or against you. I mean, I must say at that um opening ceremony last night, there was a lot of European fans. Um and yeah, look, it’s going to be it’s going to be what it is. And my job is to go and play good golf the same as the rest of European guys. And if we do our jobs well, then we’ll be happy. Have you prepared to put blinders on, ear muffs, whatever? Just go do your job. Um, yeah, there’s no, we can’t control them. I can control me. I can control what happens within our group. Um, so yeah, I’ve heard a few things before. I’ll hear a few things this week, but suppose it’s part of the game. Back up here to 20. Bob, the captain has spoken this week about this being your time and this being your place and that type of thing as motos. We know how proud you are as a a Scotsman. How would it how important is it for you to follow in those? I think there’s six six Scots lads have come over here and been part of the teams that have won. What does that mean to you that kind of inspiration and being one of them? Yeah. No, we’ve talking about um a lot of things this week and I I just think that what an opportunity we’ve got um as a team to to do something special to do something that’ll yeah that will go down in history. But um again, there’s three days of golf, three long days of golf. Um and if we just control what we can control, we’ll be just fine. And look, there’s so much trust gone into every part of the of the week, every part of the team, from the players to the vices to the caddies to partners to backroom staff, everything. I mean, there’s no stone unturned. And at the end of the day now, it’s about go out there and perform. And I feel like if we do that well, we’re going to be happy at the end of the week. Anybody knows the importance of family, it’s you. Oh, that’s so that’s like an extension of that. Yeah. Look, the European side, it when I went in in Rome, I didn’t know what to expect, but I’ve come here knowing what to expect. And I mean, the minute you walk in that team room, it is just it’s as though you’ve known it known each other since you were young kids. And it’s just it’s a different I’ve played team sports all my life and it’s the same feeling that you get on a bus trip home from a shinty match as you get um when you walk into that team room. There’s a real a real family feel, a real togetherness and yeah, we’re on one mission. Over to Dylan on one. I risk a cliche here. Bob, was there anything you think you learned about yourself at the last RDER Cup that has kind of changed your positioning in the game? I just think I learned I can compete at the at the top level um of golf. It’s look, I learned so much from equipment side of it. I changed I changed pretty much all my equipment um since Rome. Um and I feel like my game has progressed. There’s still little things that I feel that sort of it can can improve, but I just learned I can compete at that level. Um, had a great partner and Rosie at the last one. Um, but yeah, I think the last two seasons on the PJ tour have helped me massively to to be in this team, to be where I am in the world of golf, and yeah, let the fun begin. We’ll wrap things up right here on Mike Two. Uh, so Donald Trump is proud of his Scottish heritage. As a Scott, how do you feel about him coming to watch tomorrow? Again, I just play golf. I don’t politics and stuff is out of my I mean, I’m not bright enough for one to be worrying about politics. Um, I’m worrying more about what goes on this week on on the golf course. And yeah, as a European, we’ve got a job to do. and yeah, try and compete as hard as we can and hopefully hopefully win the RDER Cup so you don’t find it a distraction. It’s just another spectator. Thanks for your time, Bob. We appreciate it.