MacIntyre, who made his British Open debut at Royal Portrush in 2019, is coming off his best result in a major.
PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — Robert MacIntyre isn’t too proud to admit — he can run a little hot on the golf course. And when the Scotsman has had a particularly frustrating day on the course, his temper can flare, which means he needs time to decompress post-round.
“I’m pretty good at telling everyone, give me an hour. I can go as mental as I want for an hour, and after that, I just go back to life,” he explained on Tuesday during a press conference ahead of the 153rd British Open at Royal Portrush. “I can do whatever I want for an hour. Just anything I want. You can break things. You can literally do whatever I want for an hour. After that hour is gone, my job's done. For an hour and a half before my round, two hours before my round, I'm preparing, so nobody gets in my way. It's warmup, stretching, gym work, all of that. So there's a five-, six-, seven-, eight-hour window that I'm working. If you have a bad day at work, you're going to be annoyed. It happens more often than not for me as well.”
As defending champion last week at the Genesis Scottish Open, the 28-year-old MacIntyre said he caught the wrong side of the draw for the first two rounds. He barely squeaked by the 36-hole cut and finished back of the pack at T-65. MacIntyre didn’t specify if he had any outbursts at the Scottish Open, but he’s admittedly a player who wears his emotions on his sleeves.
“I'll drop, I was going to say the odd, but a few bad words in there. I'll hit the bag. I'll say some harsh things, but that's what gets me going,” he said. “If I walk around and I'm all happy, I just made a double bogey or people are clapping, thanks very much, that's not me. I'm needing to smash something up. I want to rip a glove. I do something to get that anger out. It's better out than in for me. Some people it's better holding it, but for me it's get it out and then just do not let it affect the next shot. Simple.”
MacIntyre, who made his British Open debut at Royal Portrush in 2019, is coming off his best result in a major. He finished second at the U.S. Open at Oakmont in June, shooting a final-round 2-under 68. He held the clubhouse lead until J.J. Spaun nipped him with birdies at the final two holes to win by two.
“When I finished, I thought, if someone beats that, fair play, and J.J. played better during the week,” MacIntyre said. “For me, that's as good a performance as I can put in a round on probably the hardest golf course on the planet that we play.”
For MacIntyre, keeping his emotions in check will be one of the bigger challenges he faces this week, but it’s an area that he’s been making progress with and has helped him improve to world No. 14 and a contender to make his second straight European Ryder Cup team this fall.
“It's been difficult in the past for me to reset, but nowadays, there's so many golf tournaments,” he said, “and you don't know what's coming the next week.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: 'Fiery' Robert MacIntyre on bad words, breaking things
Category: General Sports
