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THE 148TH OPEN

July 18, 2019

Robert MacIntyre

Portrush, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Q. How was it walking up the first fairway?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: It was brilliant. Meeting Beef for the first time and the roar that erupted when Beef stepped on the tee, made me chuckle a wee bit. It was a brilliant day all around. Enjoyed every bit of it.

Q. You could see your name on the leaderboards.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: I'm watching it every moment. Once I eagled the par-4, and on the par-3, I was talking to Greg, We're leading The Open.

Don't get ahead of ourselves just now and keep doing what we're doing, enjoying it.

Q. You hear certain guys saying I don't want to look at the leaderboards and get ahead of myself.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: I think just now it's no problem. It's about jockeying in position. It's 72 holes. We've only played 18. So I want to be in position come Sunday afternoon. That's what I plan on doing. Hopefully we can do that.

Q. Talk about the eagle on 5.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: I thought the club was too much. And Greg said he didn't like the driver. I was thinking it could come up short and leave me an awkward putt. And I ended up hitting driver. He was right, it was too much club.

But you get a bit of luck, and hopefully you take advantage of it.

Q. After the bogey the previous hole as well.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Off the 4th, it's like 304 yards to the bunker, I've flown it maybe 280, hit the downslope and went down to the bunker. We were not expecting it to. Tee up thinking it's perfect. But now we just take the bogeys as they come, and just rub them off and keep going.

Q. Is it more than you imagined it would be, the emotions?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: It's not more than I thought, myself. But it's quicker than I expected. It's come faster than I ever thought. I was expecting to have an early challenge to it. But at least for the locals we've just got to keep reading it.

Q. Talk about last week.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: It was huge. Even doing all the media stuff. I wasn't used to it. And before last week. I just had to get away from it Tuesday afternoon. But it helped massively even watching how the guys go around the golf course helped me out there today and helped Greg, as well.

Q. You said you have felt more nervous?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: A hundred percent, I stepped on that tee last week and I was just thinking, oh, no, just get this thing moving forward. But last week you've just got to learn from these things. And I feel that's what I'm doing.

Q. What's been the key to be relaxed?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: One of the things is Greg. He's a big part in it. Just -- we don't even -- when we walk down the fairways, we're not talking golf. We're talking anything. We just talk absolutely anything.

And also today there with Beef was a big help, just kind of laughing, when the crowds erupted for him. It's been brilliant and I'll just keep enjoying it up.

Q. What was your best moment?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Probably the putt on 5. I was a wee bit worried it would go by the pin, running down the slope. But the greens -- the green was setting into me, so I gave it a good rap and got lucky. It went in.

Q. You've always made decisions that you feel are right for you. Is that something that you've been good at looking after yourself?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, it's about preparing for what's next. Going on the Mini Tour prepared me for Q-School. I was successful on Q-School. Everything from the Challenge -- 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.

Q. (Inaudible.)
ROBERT MacINTYRE: I'm sure there will be -- there's -- my whole family is over. Staying in a house. It's been nice and relaxed.

Q. Thomas and Dan, as well?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Thomas is here, Dan is at home, my sister is expecting, too. And he's keeping her on her toes this week.

Q. The scoreboard had your name on it.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: I just kept glancing at the leaderboards. And just going can we win this? It's day one, and we just have to keep moving. I just need to put myself in position to do so and come Sunday, back nine. And if you've got that chance, well, it's the way I play golf, you just keep going at it.

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