THE RYDER CUP

September 27, 2023

Robert MacIntyre

Marco Simone

Team Europe

Press Conference

STEVE TODD: Joined by Robert MacIntyre for Team Europe. We know team sport has been a part of your life with shinty, but how much have you been enjoying the team environment this week?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, it's good. There's been a lot going on, obviously, but it feels very much like home. All the guys behind each other for one goal, and it's part of why, we say in shinty, it's one goal to win the match, and it's one goal this week to win the trophy back.

Q. Having won here, you know this place really well. Can you talk about how different it's set up this week to the Italian Open?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, there's a couple drivable holes than what it was before but still very similar. You've got to hit it in the short stuff. The rough's brutal. But it's no different. Good golf scores will win matches, and if you keep it reasonably straight off the tee, then you've got a great chance.

Q. And you played in The Hero Cup earlier in the year, there was a really good team room setup there. It's been taken up a notch here. Can you talk about what's in that room and the Seve touches, etc.?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, it's brilliant. There's a football changing room feel to it. You've obviously got the lockers on the one side and then you go through to another room -- it gives you goosebumps when you walk into that room and you see, they have got a shirt of Seve. It's special. You're in a special week. You're in a golf tournament that means the world to the best players in the planet, and I'm sure once I kind of get more into it, it will be the same for me.

Q. Even for a young guy like you, Seve is this huge inspiration for European golfers?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, he turned it around, didn't he. He turned the tide. Obviously Americans were dominating, but then kind of Seve took it upon himself to change that, to rectify it.

I think ever since then, I mean, I'm sure Jon said it. That's the reason he plays golf. I mean, Seve has done so much for the game of golf.

For me, obviously I didn't really get to watch him. I didn't get to meet him. But I've watched so many clips of him but there's so many others. Last night I spoke to Monty, and I mean, for a Scotsman, Monty was everything. Again, just a little bit before my time. But I mean, I've heard all about him. I've watched so many clips about him. Yeah, there's just so many idols that have done so well in this tournament.

Q. What experiences in terms of team events will you draw back on for this week just in your amateur career?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, I've played -- everything we've done with Scottish golf in amateur stuff was always team stuff, European Teams, Nations Cup. I went to college for a year and a half; it was a team. You travel as a team. My whole life's a team. I don't do anything without a team behind me.

I have my small community back home, a lot of family in one area. Everything's -- it's like a family. That's the way I treat a team is literally try and treat it like a family, and this week's been the same.

At the end of the day, anyone will do anything for each other to try and get better, to make something, and this week's trying to win the Ryder Cup. For me, the experiences that you draw, I've not really got any that kind of stand out, but I've played so many team events, team sports, that it just feels kind of normal for me.

Q. Not to bring back a bad memory, but the 2017 Walker Cup, anything you look back on, or do you want to put that out of your mind?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: No, I absolutely love that week. If you look at that team, I think, and ten years from now, you'll look back at that team and go that was one of the strongest American teams ever assembled. A couple of them are here this week. A couple of them should have been on that team that week. What a team they had. We had a strong team but the style of golf course didn't suit us, and this week it should suit us.

No, I loved every minute of that week. It didn't go our way. It's difficult to beat the Americans in America on a golf course like that.

Q. You spoke last year about the excitement you felt arriving at St Andrews ahead of playing an open there. How does the feeling arriving here compare for this week?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Slightly different. A bit more excitement in it. There's more buzz around it. There's more people around it. When I arrived at St Andrews, it was on me. I was the only one that could control what was going to happen.

This week, there is so much more to it than just me. Obviously playing team sports, it's been brilliant. But there's been nothing that's felt the way I've felt this week when I first arrived. Everyone has been so good, from Luke to the vice captains to the players; the experienced players have kind of taken the rookies under their wing and looked after us.

Q. You mentioned Monty. What specifically piece of advice did he give you from his experience that he said that would help you this week? And secondly, I remember when you arrived at Augusta the first time, you had some music. What Scottish music is on the playlist in the team room this week?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: I've not had the chance to -- I don't think they will let me put my phone to the speaker. I'll probably drive them all out of the team room.

But no, Monty has done everything in the game of golf. He's been -- as a European, golfer, he's been an inspiration for many. Everything reverts back to just be yourself. You can try and change so much stuff. You can try and be something else, but the best version of you is yourself, and that's pretty much what he said last night. I think that's kind of what the majority of the kind of experienced guys have said, just be yourself.

Q. My question kind of follows on from that a little bit. Firstly, would I be right in assuming that for the rookies, this is possibly the hardest part of the week, the buildup, because it's all so brand new and waiting for it to actually start, much less hitting a ball, it might ease a bit? And with respect to that, is there anything you're doing in your downtime? I know you're not allowed to put your music on publicly, but are you reading anything or watching anything that's helping you kill those hours when your mind could wander?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: To be honest, there's not much time to yourself other than when you're sleeping. But it's been -- to be honest with you, I'm very relaxed just now. The buzz, the proper buzz hasn't hit me yet. I think Friday or Thursday night, it will start to hit me a bit.

Just now, I'm as chilled out as I ever have been, and I think it's my personality. But I think on the music side of it, I don't think they will let me control the music. I like my Gaelic, my kind of Teuchter music.

Q. I'm an Englishman. You're going to have to explain that in great detail to me, I'm afraid.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: It's just the Scottish Highland music. Scottish Gaelic stuff. Sometimes not the best singers, but it's a good party.

Q. Is it bagpipes and stuff like that coming out?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: No. I mean, I try and not make it too loud, but when I'm in the shower, I get the old tunes on and sing away, just like anyone.

Q. It's a fascinating image, that.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: (Laughs).

Q. How much detail have Luke and the vice captains given you? Do you know when you're playing and who you're playing with? Does that help you in your preparation knowing what your role is going to be?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, I've got kind of a hint on who I'm going to be playing with and what I'm going to be playing in. Again, nothing's going to prepare me for that first tee shot. It's just plain and simple. It's something bigger than I've ever been involved in and ever experienced. Just try and keep it as light as I can so that I can play golf the way I know that I can play golf, and the main part is just enjoy it.

Q. You talked about the scenes with Seve and Monty and the emotional messages the other night. How are you going to do it going forward? Will you calm down by the time you get to the first tee, or do you need that nervous energy to keep going?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: For me, as I said, I'm as calm as ever just now. I actually said to my family, at the start of the week, do you know, I've not got the nerves yet. I'm very chilled. I think it's because the team environment I'm in, it's very much what I'm comfortable in. But I think Friday or Thursday night, when I know it's coming, I think the excitement will pick up and the nerves will start to hit.

But it's part of it and it's part of the journey, and I've just got to enjoy it. It's there. It's not going to go away, and just accept it's there and go and do your best.

Q. We talked about team sports and so on and how many you've played in and all the rest of it. But this is not quite the same. This is a team event in an individual sport. Tell us about the differences between playing for a team in an individual sport and playing in a team in a team sport.

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, well, so the sport I play, shinty, I mean, it's 12 a side, but it's man on man. It's not like football where you've got the team will attack you and they have got a formation they are going to attack you with.

In shinty, it's man v. man, the formation set up, and you mark a man and you can obviously cover. We always say -- my dad is a coach, but he always says, "Look, if you do your job right, then I'll look after the guy there. If you do your job right, it takes care of it."

It's the same in the team aspect for golf. I get it's the team bits; individual again, and if I do my job, it helps the rest of the guys. I'm trying to take that into it, and yeah, I find it very similar to the sports I enjoy. The main thing is just do your job well, and it will help the main goal.

Q. Have you worked out the team mentality in an individual sport?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, in shinty, because it's such a man-on-man sport, that obviously if there's a breakaway, you've got to cover him, but the majority of the time it's 1v1. You stop your man and it helps the team.

Q. Thinking about conditions this week, the course undulations and the weather and stuff, how does everyone think about that?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, it's good. The majority of the guys have been here and played it from kind of 2021. There was a few guys that came. But no, the course is a course. It is hilly. It's hot. But no, we've got all the best stuff. We've got the best guys for the job from hydration, nutrition, everything. Just as well we're athletes.

Q. As a Scotsman, how are you dealing with the sun?

ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, it's all right. Get out there and enjoy yourself.

STEVE TODD: Bob, thanks for joining us. We wish you well this week.