The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
MacIntyre holds on to Ryder Cup hopes
Robert MacIntyre says his Ryder Cup dream is still on – all it will take is one great week at the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth next week.
The Scot missed two cuts chasing a PGA Tour card on the Korn Ferry Tour in the US this last fortnight, and has returned home to take a break.
But he believes he’s one of 12 players who can snag an automatic qualifying place and not even bother captain Padraig Harrington for a wildcard pick if he wins the tour flagship, the last qualifying event.
“I’ll be an automatic pick if I win Wentworth, that’s pretty certain,” he said on returning to home base in Oban. “My golf game last week was brilliant but mentally I wasn’t at the races. I know now when the engine’s running low and when I need to take a break.
“The race hasn’t run, until Padraig tells us the team I’ve got as much chance as most of the guys. I can still achieve everything that I tried to achieve in the last year with one great week at Wentworth.”
His target is still to make the team to play the USA at Whistling Straits.
“The Ryder Cup is not over,” he stressed. “The dream’s still there, I’ve got one event. There are guys who’ve played these last few weeks in Europe and are playing well, but I can pass them all in one big finish at Wentworth, and that’s the target.
“The way I play golf, I take the bull by the horns and go for it. If I’m in with a chance on Sunday, it’s reins off and let’s go.”
MacIntyre added that a week back in Oban was absolutely necessary, for mental relaxation.
“Physically I’m fine, in as good a shape as I’ve been in a long time,” he said. “Mentally we got to the point where I realised I needed a break – I’d had just one week off since the Scottish Open.
“But I was out there trying to achieve something.
“So I just kept going and going because I was so close to it.
“I have to realise my mental health’s more important than my golf.”
He still believes he made the right choice to stay in the US rather than come back to Europe.
“I try not to look back and regret things,” he said. “I did the right thing to try and achieve a PGA Tour card.
“The way we looked at it, if I came back to Europe and played well, I might get the Ryder Cup team. But if I played well in Korn Ferry I was going to get my card and maybe the Ryder Cup as well.
“The first week (on the Korn Ferry Tour) in Boise was as strong a field as the Czech Masters. We planned it for a reason.
“The performances haven’t been great the last while but it’s only four weeks ago I was top 20 in a WGC event.
“We get to Wentworth with everyone playing well, there’s going to be guys with pressure on them because they’re expected to be in that team, then there’s guys like me.
“I expect myself to play well at Wentworth, it’s about putting in the work, the preparation time at home and then letting it happen.”