The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Fired-up MacIntyre pushes ‘red button’
Robert MacIntyre found himself pondering what the worst thing was that could happen, as he played at The Belfry yesterday.
“What was going through my head when I went back to two-over was ‘I’m playing shinty tomorrow’,” he said. “The game was in Glasgow, so it was only a four-hour drive.
Instead, the lefty thrilled the late-night crowd at the Betfred British Masters by “pressing the red button” because he felt there was nothing else he could do.
The Scot birdied five of the last six holes, and it should have been six. He got a little lucky at the end but exploited that good fortune with a closing birdie, a 67, and there will be no shinty match this weekend.
He’s still six off the nine-under lead held by Germany’s Hurly Long, but playing freely and trusting in those trying their best to help him is what he’s focusing on.
“When it’s a case of ‘I can’t do anything but go at it’, that’s when I play my best golf,” he said afterwards. “We are trying to get that from the first tee on Thursday rather later on.”
The sense that MacIntyre had just been needing a spark was pretty much confirmed on the Brabazon’s back nine, where there are a few chances to build momentum if you get on a run.
“Yes, we have spoken about it,” he said, referring to a long debrief with his team on Thursday’s disappointing 74. “It was a big discussion yesterday with everyone. I play my best golf when I have nothing to lose and have everything to gain.
“I felt I was playing great golf, I just hadn’t holed a but. But then ‘bang’, one goes in, and the floodgates open.”
He nearly aced the short 14th after the first birdie at 13, made his regulation four at 15 and then rolled in a 12 footer up the hill at 16. By that time he had the crowd coming to watch a fading Lee Westwood on his side.
But the three-putt at the long 17th seemed to be costly, certainly as when he slumped over his driver in despair after the tee shot at 18.
“I felt the worst,” he said, raising his head to see the marshal giving him the thumbs-up.
“The water cuts back more there where it landed, if it runs the same way it does at the start that ball is gone. It was lucky, but I feel like I have been punished enough for good golf over the last wee while.”
And it’s no good having some luck if you don’t exploit it. He did with a second shot right over the pin in the shadow of the famous oak tree. MacIntyre then made the tricky downhill 15-footer down the hill to complete the 67.
“That ball almost always pitches over the green. But Mike (Thomson, his caddie) is there to help me and I need to trust him,” he said.
“I was free-flowing early on and then I wobbled. But I just need to keep that feeling. I need to trust Davey (Burns, his coach) trust Stuart (Morgan, his stats guy) for the performance stuff.
“If I trust in them, I can play care-free. If I do that I’ll play up the top of the leaderboards.”