ALFRED DUNHILL LINKS CHAMPIONSHIP

September 28, 2022

Robert MacIntyre

Press Conference

MATTHEW JOULE: Bob, welcome. Excited to be back on home soil after your win in Italy two weeks ago?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Obviously I've been playing well lately and it's good to get back on home soil, a little bit of form. It's not happened much before, but no, I'm just glad to get this week going.

MATTHEW JOULE: How special to get out in front of the home fans so soon after winning in Italy?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Hopefully good. Hopefully the weather is not as bad as its forecast, might put a dampener on it. Always good to come home and play in front of home crowds.

Q. You've Made it clear what your aim is for next year in The Ryder Cup. This could clearly be another big week in terms of points, so clearly I would guess it's very much on your mind.

ROBERT MacINTYRE: This is a big week for obviously points and whatnot but there's still such a long way to go that one week doesn't make or break what's going to happen in the next year. The Ryder Cup is the goal and I'll do everything to get there.

Q. You seem to be in great form at the moment. We were looking at your rankings and have your actual accurate rankings and you're on that nice upward trajectory. Do you feel like you're in a good place at the moment?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: 100 per cent. It's been difficult. Obviously changed over about three months ago. I started doubting myself in Denmark, wondering if it was the right thing I had done. Spoke to a few people, Stoddy being the main one and I just have to trust everything I do. Everything is instinct and it felt right to change and it turns out it was a good thing.

It's just working back to where we are not going back to anything, just going back to the way I swung the golf club in 2019.

Q. Is this a tournament that you enjoy playing in, an environment that you like putting yourself into?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: It's different. It's a different event. It's a nice, relaxed feel. It's my sixth event in a row, I can go out here and cruise around a little bit and hopefully enjoy myself. Hopefully the weather kind of goes easy on us. Friday doesn't look great, so who knows. We'll just go out there and give it our best.

Q. Shane Lowry sat in that seat this morning and said you're the type of guy he would like to have on The Ryder Cup Team. What does it that mean coming from peers of stature?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: That's massive. It's brilliant to have the respect of major champions like Shane. He's been there, done it at every level in golf. He's at a level of golf that I'm not quite at. He's played and won majors and he's played in Ryder Cups. That's what I'm trying to get to.

It's cool to hear these words but again I have to knuckle down and trust everything I do and keep pushing. The last couple of weeks, or five weeks, has showed that my game has not gone. It's right there again. It's going out there and doing it over and over again.

Q. You've had success in Scotland and Italy, and last night the football team was successful in their quest, and you were quick to offer your congratulations. Can you talk about what that means to you as a sports fan?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I'm a massive -- I'm a diehard Scot. It's on my golf ball every day I play. The country means everything to me. It's something that in sport, when a country always gets knocked down, we get battered, we get told we are not good enough, and I think it's a nationwide thing, and it's always about how we are not doing well enough.

And you know, what for a small country, I think we punch hard. That's all we can do. It's something that -- I mean, I've grown up playing all the sports, football, shinty, you name it, I've played it. And to see Scotland doing so well in so many different sports now, it's brilliant and it's only going to get better.

Q. There's almost an assumption that Scottish players are going to thrive in crap weather, but you don't seem like much of an enthusiast, all the wind and rain. What's your feelings about it?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: It's going to be the same for everyone this week. It's just, it's difficult. We travel; we chase the sun around the world, really. It's not often that you get the wind and the rain together. Normally if it's raining, there's thunderstorms because you're in a warm country and whatnot.

It's different. It's more a mental test than you're testing golf when it comes -- when that comes in. It's a damage limitation job, and I don't mind it. At the end of the day, it's another challenge. It's always better when you're playing well, isn't it, than if you're off to a bad start, it can get you down.

This is a week I'm just going to enjoy family and friends out there supporting, and we'll see where we end up.

Q. How good was it to get back to Oban on Monday night and get a trophy besides the one you won in Cyprus and what did you do?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I haven't been home. I just came straight here. I'll go home on hopefully Sunday night.

But no, I've only seen my mum. She come down and on Sunday night to get us from the airport and came straight here.

Obviously I celebrated in Italy, that was good enough.

Q. Clearly a spring in your step coming back to home soil?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: It is. Again my game is in good shape. I've been looking at stats for the last kind of five weeks and obviously I've seen a trend, what was happening. So it was always good. It was looking good. But getting results is a different story and to finally see some good performances is always a bonus.

Q. What's that victory done for your general outlook in life? Do you think you'll be kicking the cat less or something like that? You were quite down; I remember here at The Open, you were really down?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I knew how much work and effort I was putting in and getting absolutely nothing out of it. I wasn't performing at the top end of golf that I feel like my game should have been. I just wasn't getting -- I felt like I was playing all right but the results were mediocre at best.

Obviously when you're not seeing the results, you're not positive. You're always kind of -- it's another 40th place, another 30th place. It's not bad but it's not where I want to be.

I mean, again, in Denmark, I phoned Stoddy on the Wednesday night doubting the changes I had made, changing coach. I was playing better but my results had not changed. Just have to stick to it. It's hard to stick to something I'm not seeing a result.

And then I seen the trend in my stats and whatnot, and then I mean, it was one good putting week away from something good, and that something good was at the right time.

Q. The Top-50 in the world, you've been in this Masters situation before, haven't you. Is this something that you know you can't force it?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, it's probably going to take another win probably by the end of the year to jump into that Top-50 or something close to a win.

But again, I can just go and play golf and shoot as low a number as I can. If that Top-50 happens by the end of the year, it happens. If not, I've got another couple of months to climb the rankings.

Q. You look like a lean, mean fighting machine these days. Can you talk about how you've sort of changed physically etc., since you came out on tour, and what's been behind all that?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Aye, my weight's not shifted in the last kind of year, but I'm putting more effort; the last two weeks, I have not.

I built a gym and everything at home, a simulator, all the works, back at home. So you can't change -- it's a habit you've got to change, and I can't change it on the road without changing it at home. Started doing gym work at home, and then just try to do it twice a week on the road.

It's something that it's more to pass time. I mean, I'm laziest, sitting on your backside at home, you eat sweets and do that kind of stuff. But it's an hour out of my day that I can go and do some gym work and just clear my head.

But it's just something I started at home that I try to work into my life on the road.

Q. So pass on the tea cakes?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I had two last night, and I had a little custard doughnut out on the golf course today. So I'm not a lean, mean fighting machine.

MATTHEW JOULE: Thanks, Bob, good luck this week.