Robert MacIntyre: Scot advances to last-16 of WGC Match Play

Robert MacIntyre is through to the last-16 on his WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play debut.

The 24-year-old staged a final hole salvo in his match with Adam Long to win the 18th and snatch a deserved half-point at Austin Country Club. 

Three-down at the turn, the Oban man trimmed his American opponent’s advantage to one heading to the last. 

He then showed nerves of steel to hammer a 371-yard drive on the 18th to less than three feet. When Long was unable to get inside him in two, the hole was the Scot’s and the match was halved.

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That, combined with world No.1 Dustin Johnson’s defeat to the already-eliminated Kevin Na, saw MacIntyre advance to the knock-out stages of the tournament.

He’ll face fellow Ryder Cup hopeful Victor Perez in the next round on Saturday.

“This is massive for my confidence and it’s massive for going forward,” said a delighted MacIntyre. “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.

“But today was massive for me. I was three-down through nine, and Mike gave me a shake on the tenth tee, like come on, we’ve got to keep fighting here. That’s something that I normally always have inside me. 

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“My head was down through nine 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.”

Describing his stunning tee shot at 18, MacIntyre added: “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 one-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.”