RBC CANADIAN OPEN

May 31, 2024

Robert MacIntyre

Hamilton Golf and Country Club

Quick Quotes

Q. Bogey-free through 36 holes around this place. What has allowed you to be able to do that on a course that there can be a lot of trouble?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I think about that. I think I'm playing nicely. When I'm in position off the tee I've got, I think I've been, approach play has been pretty good. I've been giving myself a lot of chances. When I missed the green I've had a good short game. To be honest, I think I've missed it in the right spots. I miss it fat side of the green, not short sided and we can kind of run it. If not, we fly it over it. But, no, I think overall it's been a good two days.

Q. What's been your favorite shot or moment so far?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: To be honest it's just spending 36 holes with my dad. First time on the bag on a proper tournament. We're just kind of learning on the run -- well, he is, he's learning on the run and I'm kind of trying to stay as calm as I can. When I do miss a shot, I'm not trying to get too annoyed. Yeah, we're just trying to have as much fun as we can.

Q. What are the conversations like with him out there, what do you talk about?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Just life. Just normal stuff. There's less of other stuff other than what we're trying to do. I've kind of had more time on my own. If he's sitting back a little bit, I'll just go ahead and kind of be in my own world and think about things. No, it's been good. Look, I'm out here just now playing, I've only been home really three weeks since January the 3rd, so I don't get to see my dad much. Obviously, I phoned him, emergency phone call to come here last week. It was, he jumped at the chance. It's good to just spend an extra week with loved ones.

Q. Why did you need an attitude adjustment?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Because I think my golf game's not changed in the last, I don't know, four, five years. Nothing's changed. Only thing that's changed this year is the environment that I'm in on the PGA TOUR instead of the DP World Tour. So, I've got the golf game to compete anywhere in the world, and I knew that, from playing obviously Open Championships and the Masters my first time. There was something stopping me. There was something stopping me from competing. I felt like I had a terrible start to the year. Something was stopping me. We kind of, we dug in deeper into stats and whatnot and we're like, everything's all right here, what is it? And then you got to look at yourself, you got to look yourself in the mirror and go, you might be the problem. We sat down, we spoke about it, and I think my attitude was a problem. Just now I'm working hard on that, trying to just stay as even keeled and just deal with whatever comes.

Q. Have you parted ways with your previous caddie?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, yeah. So I've been going through a transition of caddies in the last, had Mikey Burrow, who caddies for Danny Willett, he came and caddied for me. I had Scott Carmichael, we done a trial run for the last kind of five weeks. He missed the PGA because he had a wedding. So I had Mikey Burrow back on the bag for the PGA. Then we parted ways last week. Look, it's difficult. Caddies for me are, it's more of a -- it's not so much doing the job for me, it's not so much the caddieing part, it's the personalities and it's the -- like this week, my dad's doing very little. He's doing stuff to help me, but he's doing very little. It's just about having chats on the golf course. This isn't, it's not rocket science, it's just a game of golf. Hit it where you're aiming it and just keep walking.

Q. Did you know that this was a pretty tough walk before you the got here?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I managed to get my caddie bag for my dad. I had the tour bag on Monday when it was pouring rain, when I played nine holes. He was carrying the tour bag then I thought, yeah, it's time to put the caddie bag in. He's enjoying it. He tries his best, and that's all we can both do.

Q. Where did you get the bag?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Titleist. Obviously, I use their clubs, so I just messaged Liam back home and I was like, any chance -- and plus I may end up doing the U.S. Open qualifier on Monday, and I thought 36 holes for my dad carrying that tour bag ain't going to be pretty, so I've gone a bit easier on him.

Q. With your dad on the bag, being in the lead, knowing you'll be in the one of the final groups and being in contention, and being able to share that experience with him too.

ROBERT MacINTYRE: No, it's cool. Look, it's something that he can always say he's led a PGA TOUR event at some point. What happens over the next two rounds, who knows. I'm going to go out there and do the same stuff, hit as many fairways as I can, hit as many good shots as I can, just keep doing the same stuff. As I keep saying, it's not rocket science, it's not -- it's a golf course. It's you versus it. I think I've done a good job so far.

Q. What's one lesson that you learned from your dad just along the way?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Along my life? Keep playing shinty.

Q. Did does he play shinty?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, he was really good. I'm not quite as good, but we still play.

Q. You still do with him when you're home?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah.

Q. Rory's talked about the importance of National Opens, you and him obviously last year at the Scottish Open were duelling down the stretch. How important, what would it be for you to win a National Open?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I think they're massive. I think they're -- look, coming from Europe, DP World Tour world, a lot of the golf tournaments are National Opens. I hate to see the big ones or the ones that really stand out kind of take a dip. I mean, for instance, the French Open this year is on one of the, if not the best golf courses on the planet, Paris National. I'm sure you all know about it. Last year it was at the end of the year. It was in -- I think it might even have been -- it was the week before Ryder Cup. This year I think it's two weeks later. The schedules are just killing these big, big tournaments. I mean, that's such a big tournament, but it's going to be freezing cold and whatnot. I think National Opens are massive. For me, for a Scotsman to win this, my National Open, Scottish Open, is a dream of mine. I mean, if I don't win a major I want to win the Scottish Open. So, the National Open of Scotland is massive for me, so I wouldn't imagine it's any different for the Canadians this week.

Q. How have the crowds treated you this week?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: They have been brilliant. Obviously being left-handed it's kind of giving me a bit of help. Obviously with the left-handed stuff coming from hockey. I mean, we're quite similar up the west coast of Scotland from Point Shinty, I think, we've got high ratio of left-handed golfers. So, yeah, it's good to have support from outside of people close to me.