King Louis has his eyes on prize
Oban man charges up field with ‘almost perfect’ round
ROBERT MACINTYRE pressed his foot to the accelerator at Sandwich yesterday and overtook close to 50 rivals in a hugely-impressive comeback. Having only just survived on the cut mark of one-over-par, the 24year-old lefty from Oban repaid the golfing gods with a third-round 65.
He also kept the best till last when he sank a 60-foot putt for his sixth birdie of the day — and then gave himself an uncharacteristic pat on the back.
‘I’m as big a critic of myself as anyone but I know when my game is good. And, as much as you beat yourself up at times, you have to pat yourself on the back as well and keep your chest out,’ he said.
‘Sometimes I bum myself up and occasionally it’s even better than that. Now I will sit down and speak with the team and say: “That was a really good performance.”
‘I didn’t feel I got anything out of the first two days other than making the cut, but I felt I had left something behind and today was about putting my foot on the gas again and it paid off.
‘Obviously it was a bonus at 18. You are not expecting to hole that, you are just trying to get down in two. But my pace was great all day and I had a decent line and it went in.’
After posting rounds of 72 and 69, MacIntyre went out with the mindset that he just wanted to hole some putts and do himself justice after sharing sixth place on his Open debut at Portrush two years ago.
He said: ‘I just needed to see one good one go in at the right pace to believe I could hole them, and the one on the second for birdie was an absolutely perfect putt.
‘I hit a great putt at the first hole, too, even though it didn’t drop. It was almost the perfect round of golf for me.’
MacIntyre’s re-emergence in the tournament followed the exit of several former champions on Friday evening. But such is his level of self-belief that he does not feel at all out of place rubbing shoulders with the cream of world golf.
He added: ‘I am fully comfortable and this is where I want to play golf. You can only be the best by competing against the best and beating them. I know where I need to improve to keep moving forward and if I can keep improving little bits here and there, I’ll do that.’
MacIntyre, the sole Scot at Sandwich, may have made a belated surge up the leaderboard but the home hordes were left disappointed by the performance of the English armada. Paul Casey and the
less-heralded Andy Sullivan ended at five under to maintain a vague sniff of glory today, but it will take a fairly dramatic switch around for either to grasp the Claret Jug.
Almost all the big guns in English golf had survived the cut, but none could quite make the move desired. Perhaps we should not be too surprised, as the most prominent names have long since specialised in consistency rather than outright glory.
There are seven English players currently in the world’s top 50. Between them, they have played 372 Majors, including this week, but the only win in that total remains Justin Rose’s 2013 US Open triumph.
By tonight, Lee Westwood will have completed 88 of them, setting the record for the most entered without a victory. Danny Willett, past Masters champion, but currently outside the top 100, briefly excited hopes of a surge when he eagled the 10th, but he was back to four under by the end.
Rose began yesterday at three under, but after a birdie on the seventh could not get a run going. ‘There’s that added meaning and pressure to win an Open in England for English players,’ said Rose, who had finished on three under.
‘I don’t think it ramps up crazily like the Euros with the whole nation getting behind the team to a different level of expectation. ‘I haven’t quite got myself into the hunt here, if I was at eight or nine there would be that added pressure and the opportunity to represent the home fans. I can’t tell you how that feels right now but I would love to have that burden. ‘I found that bit extra at the US Open. Tommy (Fleetwood), (Ian) Poulter, (Lee) Westwood, Paul (Casey) — they are all good enough to win Majors, it’s that little intangible about what gets you over the line.I’m glad that monkey is off my back and I’m not part of that conversation. I’m still battling to win number two.’
Willett’s eagle two at the 10th, holing his approach, could have been the catalyst to spark his round into life as he sat six under for the tournament — but instead it ground to a halt when he went out of bounds four holes later. The Yorkshireman compounded that with another bogey straight after and he eventually signed for a level-par 70 to leave him at four under and too far back to make a challenge today.
‘It is just a scrappy day really, too many poor shots and a couple of nice ones,” the 2016 Masters champion said. ‘I thought 10 was going to kick us on but it doesn’t always work like that.
‘Then I had some poor shots on 14 and 15 which really scuppered the plans: poor swing, wrong time (at 14) and 15 the same — poor swing, a little bit of indecision with what I was trying to do.
‘Golf has little 20-to30-minute spells when things are good and 20- to 30-minute spells which you have to battle through.’
British golfers will still help form a spine with the Spanish to this year’s Europe team for the Ryder Cup, with time running out to cement positions.
The last qualifying event is the PGA Championship at Wentworth beginning on September 9, to form a squad that has an intimidating task against the Americans on their home soil. Eight of the world’s top nine come from their side of the pond, and 13 of the top 20.
Westwood was phlegmatic after his 72 saw him fall back to level par. The frustration almost got to him on the 8th when he contemplated snapping his club over his knee, only to realise that the ball had ended up inches from the hole.
He was left looking forward to Whistling Straits in September and thinks the European challenge should not be underestimated.
‘I think it will be a good venue for us. I don’t think it’s the kind of place you can Americanise — you can’t make the greens silly quick because it gets windy, you can’t make the fairways any wider and that time of year could be like this or chilly, and if it’s the latter then we have more experience.’
He is nonetheless sceptical of the potential disharmony in the opposition centering on the feud between Brooks Koepka and Bryson DeChambeau.
‘I don’t know what to make of it, they’re just messing around aren’t they?’ he suggested.
‘If that’s their aim, they are top of the money list, that’s what everyone is talking about.’