WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 24, 2021

Robert MacIntyre

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. It was obviously a lot of back and forth, just kind of give us your overall thoughts on how the day went.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, I mean, I must say it was one of the best matches I've been involved in. Both of us were playing really well, weren't giving an edge. I then hit it in the water on -- hit a decent shot on 12 and it went in the water, and then just the last five holes just we both started going crazy. I chip in when he's knocked it in tight, and it just kind of fed from that. The confidence was there on my game all day, and I just continued to just commit to the shot, and it paid off at the end.

Q. For you to say that was one of the best matches you've been a part of, that's saying something considering your experience as an amateur and just playing in some of those big events. What do you have to say to that? That's pretty special.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, I mean, the thing is when you play amateur golf, British Amateur, a lot of times level par you win the match. Out here you're playing against the best guys on the planet, and you know -- you feel like if I shoot level par, I probably ain't going to win. I mean, both of us were just tee to green, tee to green. We were just -- it was like, who's going to get a little bit of a spark, and thankfully it was me today, and it was just -- it was one of the most enjoyable rounds of golf I've ever had in my life, just with the way I played, the way I won it, and having Mike on the bag to just keep me -- everything was great today. It was just one of them days.

Q. Can you take me through the closing stretch there starting on 13 with the long one there for eagle? That's where the spark really got going.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, so I mean, obviously went 1-down on 12, and Kevin has laid up on 13. I'm an aggressive player, and Mike, my caddie, said you can cover all day on the front right or even middle of that green, as long as you hit it solid. We favored right side, hit a great tee shot. Kevin has hit it in tight, and I'm like, right, I've got to get up-and-down here for the halve. It's just one of those ones you give a chance, and it was absolutely perfect, the chip.

Went on to the next, hit a solid good tee shot, faded it a little bit too much into the fairway bunker, hit a great 7-iron, and it lipped out, but Kevin missed a short one to give me the hole.

And then the next, I've hit it to 35 feet, Kevin has hit his shot, bounce, hit the flag, spun off the right. I'm thinking, right, this is your chance. I rolled it in, but in the back of my mind I'm still saying, he's going to hole this, and sure enough, it holes it. That really got us fired up. It was one of them ones where he's not going away easily.

On the 16th, hit a great tee shot again, hit a wonderful 5-wood just about two yards too far right in the bunker, and then hit a great bunker shot that's gone about four feet past. Had to take one bounce, hit the flag and go in. It was one of them ones you think, this is a good-looking bunker shot, an absolute tight pin, and it came out a little bit hot, but it was dead on line, and it goes in, and then you stand on 17 tee, you don't know where the wind is at all on that hole, and Mike just told me to really commit to the stock 9-iron and it was perfect. We put it just on the back fringe, and yeah, that was it. Nice two-putt. Pace putt was perfect. No, it's just wonderful to win.

Q. How much confidence does this give you going into another pretty big match tomorrow against the No. 1 player in the world with Dustin Johnson?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, it's huge for confidence. I've played the last three weeks, and the three weeks I've played, I've not played well. We worked hard the last week at Sawgrass. We stayed there for a week, and we put in a lot of good work, and we came here and we done the exact same. We've played a lot of holes already this week just to get comfortable with what we're working on.

Today it showed that I'm really starting to trust what I'm doing and I'm starting to see shots and hitting the shots that I'm trying to hit. That's huge when you're trying to play match play and trust what you're doing, and even if you get behind, you've got to keep trusting it. Yeah, just looking forward to seeing what happens tomorrow.