'Fair to lose the plot' - Bob MacIntyre on venting his frustration in The Open
Oban man reckons his chance of winning at Portrush has gone after slipping eight behind Scottie Scheffler
It wasn’t the day he was hoping for and his frustration was there for all to see as Bob MacIntyre first bounced a club off the ground after hitting his approach at the 14th then clattered his bag with another club following a poor bunker shot at the same hole. “I think it’s fair game to lose the plot every now and again,” said the Oban man afterwards. “I've lost the plot after both of those shots, a bit of anger came out.”
On a day when he was hoping to get closer to Scottie Scheffler after starting out five shots behind the world No 1, MacIntyre ended up slipping further back. Signing for a third-round 70 for a six-under total, he’s now eight behind the American heading into the closing circuit in the 150th Open at Royal Portrush. It will take a remarkable turnaround for the Scot to go one better here after finishing runner-up to J.J. Spaun in last month’s US Open at Oakmont.
“Unless I get off to a hot, hot start, it's probably out the window,” said MacIntyre of his chances of becoming the first Scot since Paul Lawrie in 1999 to lift the Claret Jug. “If we don't get off to a hot start, it's going to be how high can we finish here. Unless I do have a hot start and I see myself close to the lead and within a few shots, then we'll throw the kitchen sink at it. But, seeing the leaderboard, it's just jogging for position.”
After a low-key start to the round, the 28-year-old looked to have ignited his day when making an eagle-3 from seven feet at the seventh to move to seven under. One of those shots was immediately given back when taking a bogey from the middle of the fairway at the eighth before he was on the front foot again as a 14-foot birdie putt dropped at the 11th - one of the hardest holes this week albeit playing a bit easier.
Three matches ahead, Rory McIlroy raised the loudest roar of the day as he made an eagle at the 13th and, if MacIntyre had managed to match that or even birdied it, then it could have been a different outcome. Having to settle for a par, though, after three-putting set the tone for the frustration that was to follow over the closing stretch. “Just stops the momentum,” he said of that hole. “You feel like you're actually gaining, and then, yeah, it was just a day that was so-so.”
He reckoned what happened at the 14th had stemmed from a “wrong decision” on the tee. “It made the second shot really difficult for a left-handed golfer,” he said of having to try to hold it up in the wind but finding a greenside bunker. “That bunker is dead,” he added of being left with one aim of just getting it out but hitting it over the other side of the green.
MacIntyre had spoken at the end of last year about trying to close the gap on Scheffler but, along with lots of others, is finding that extremely difficult indeed. “He's by far the best player in the world,” said the Scot of the man he first came across in the 2017 Walker Cup in Los Angeles.
“I remember at the start of this year asking Mike [Burrow, his caddie] to look at all the stats to see how close we are to No 1 in the world. Mike stopped after a couple of stats checked and he went to No 2 because, when we checked the stats, Scheffler was further ahead of No. 2 in the world than I was at wherever I was, 15, 16 in the world, to No. 2. Yeah, he's an exceptional player, great guy. Yeah, works so hard.”
If Scheffler is the man holding the Claret Jug on Sunday night, MacIntyre is determined to finish as close as he possibly can to him. “When I left here yesterday, I thought beautiful links golf working its magic and I'm sitting on my couch almost in tears because I'm watching flags are limp, guys are spinning it on greens,” he said of Scheffler and the other later starters in the second round getting a rain-softened course.
‘That little bit too far back’
“I thought walking away from here last night that I wouldn't be more than three shots back, ended up five shots back from the best player in the world, and it feels like, yes, you can still be in it if something happens, but you just feel that little bit too far back.
“I don't know if that had an effect on me what I felt. I was having to push a little bit more, and a couple of mistakes came in early on. Now tomorrow is go out there and finish as high as we can, get as many World Ranking and Ryder Cup points as we can.”
At least this day was brightened up by hearing that his beloved Oban Celtic had won a cup final on the other side of the Irish Sea.
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