Macintyre in relaxed mood as he enjoys Beef encounter

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just kind of laughing, when the crowds erupted for him. It’s been brilliant and I’ll just keep enjoying it.”

His good start was a perfect way to bounce back from a rare missed cut this season in the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open at The Renaissance, where Macintyre, pictured, played with Mcilroy and Rickie Fowler in the marquee group in the first two rounds.

“It was huge,” he said of that exciting experience. “Even doing all the media stuff. I wasn’t used to it. Even watching how those guys go around the golf course helped me out there today – and helped Greg, as well.

“I stepped on that tee with Rory and Rickie last week and

I was just thinking: ‘Oh, no, just get this thing going forward’. That was more nervewracking than today, a hundred per cent. But you’ve just got to learn from these things. And I feel that’s what I’m doing.”

Refreshingly, Macintyre is his own man, having already made some decisions that he felt were best for him. For instance, he turned down the chance to play in the Dunhill Links Championship in 2017 to focus on getting himself ready for the European Tour Qualifying School and won the Sahara Kuwait Championship on the MENA Tour in just his second start in the paid ranks.

Then, in the build up to this event, he scrubbed his name from a practice tee that was set to see him play with defending champion Francesco Molinari because Ian Poulter added his name to it and he wanted to keep things as low key as possible.

“It’s about preparing for what’s next,” said Macintyre, who still stays at home with his mum and dad, Carol and Dougie, both of whom were in the large crowd enjoying his dream debut.

“Going on the MENA Tour prepared me for Q-school. I was successful on Q-school, so that gave me confidence. Everything from the Challenge Tour on, it was asking: ‘Right, can you compete in the Challenge Tour to try to win it.? You keep snowballing.

“And last week prepared me for this week. Everything that’s happened just now has prepared me for the next thing. There’s still more things to see and prepare for. And I just have to take that as it comes.”

While Johnston had received the biggest roar from the crowd on the first tee, he admitted that Macintyre had deserved the plaudits by the time they finished. “I thought he was great, very impressed and he’s a good lad,” said the Englishman. “We had a laugh. It was like he was playing at his local course with his mates.”

Johnston, who is two over, now knows where that course is, adding in reply to being asked if he knew where Oban was: “He said it’s basically about level with Edinburgh, so just keep heading west from there until you hit water.”