WGC DELL TECHNOLOGIES MATCH PLAY

March 26, 2021

Robert MacIntyre

Austin Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Kind of an exciting way to advance. Let's talk about the 18th hole if you could, please.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yes, I mean, I'm 1-down and needed to win the hole, so I played it last night, this same match, just try and win the hole. Just no matter what, just try and win the golf hole. I had probably one of the best and one of the luckiest golf shots I've hit in my life.

I had a bit of bad luck here and there and managed to turn it around right at the end there, and it's one of them things you've just got to keep fighting until the end, and it just shows anything can happen in this game.

Q. How does it feel to advance out of that pool with the No. 1 player in the world in it?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, it's massive for my confidence and it's massive for going forward. It's something that I was trying to do from the get-go before we teed off. I was trying to get out of the group. I had to play him at some point.

But today was massive for me. I was 3-down through 9, and Mike gave me a shake on the 10th tee, like come on, we've got to keep fighting here. That's something that I normally always have inside me, but my head was down through 9 and I didn't know where to go, but we just kept giving ourselves chances, and it just so happened to turn around at the right moment.

Q. Did you ever feel like you had the momentum in your direction? Was there anything that happened on the back nine?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, when I felt like we had the momentum once I holed that putt on I think it's 13, the drivable par-4. I felt like that was the moment to get going, and then he hit a great wedge shot into 15. Mine didn't come down the slope. I thought I've had a pure second shot on the par-5, but, again, we get the drop and I've hit a good wedge shot in tight, he's hit a nice shot, and he's lipped his in, and I'm thinking, this just doesn't look like it's going our way here.

But again, we keep fighting until the end and we got lucky on 18, but still had to be hit in the right direction.

Q. What exactly was your line on 18? Is that kind of what you were anticipating, to four feet or three feet?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Well, I was trying to hit the green. I mean, for me if I hit my normal shot I fly the slope, hits flat, doesn't go on the green. I had to hit a low one. I had to get it flighted, but my miss with that flighted shot is in the hazard left. But I was 1-down, I had to win the hole, so I thought, here we go. Let's get the low one going.

It was absolutely perfect, and I was shouting, go at it, because it had to get going. Bones said hit straight on the downslope, and that's exactly what we needed, and we win the hole and we advance.

Q. Since that's an early contender for drive of the year, we need you to find your inner poet to describe it, but that was good. Did you know how close it was once it landed?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Not at all. I just thought it was -- from the people -- or my team that I've got with me this week we're saying it was on the green. I didn't have a clue how close. I'm thinking it's going to be just on the green below the slope. Going to have hopefully two putts maybe to win the hole. But when I seen where they put the ball back down I was like, no way, and that's what you play the game for, these moments.

Q. What kind of work did you get done last week? You talk a lot about after Sawgrass; what was lacking and what did you accomplish to allow you to play the way you're playing this week?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Everything. I mean, I played great at Sawgrass and I was miles away from doing anything. My tee to green game was horrific, if I'm being honest. It was really bad. I trust David, my coach, and he trusts me, and we worked really hard on just getting back to basics.

When I play in the wind my angles and my setup gets all off, so we just went back to basics and it seems to be working well.

Q. How long did it take before you felt like it was where it needed to be?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Probably Monday this week. I played 18 holes on Sunday. I played 18 holes on Monday and I played nine on Tuesday, so I played a lot of holes just to feel -- I mean, it's fine on the range, standing on the range hitting golf shots where if you hit a bad one you just tee up another one.

But it's when you go out on the golf course and there's consequences for hitting a bad shot; it means something. So I managed to find the comfort of me swinging the golf club the way I want to on a Monday.

Q. It's too early for this I'm sure, but you haven't seen a highlight of your drive, right?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: No.

Q. You haven't seen Dustin standing over a par putt and seeing a ball roll --

ROBERT MACINTYRE: No.

Q. You'll like it.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: I'm glad.

Q. What's your caddie's last name?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Mike Thompson.