Robert MacIntyre “delighted” after making major move at Masters

Whisper it but a Scot will start the final round of The Masters with a chance of winning the tournament. 

Robert MacIntyre posted a helter-skelter round of 70 to lie two-under after three days at Augusta National. 

For a short spell, the 24-year-old Oban man held the clubhouse lead. By the end of the day, he had climbed into the top-10 on the leaderboard, with the top-12 and ties at the close of play tomorrow receiving an invite to return next year.

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A reminder: debutants aren’t supposed to play this well.  

Little wonder, then, that MacIntyre is feeling good going into his first Masters Sunday.

“It was tricky at the start,” admitted the 2019 European Tour ‘Rookie of the Year’. “I was throwing birdie-bogey-birdie-bogey but that’s the way I play golf. 

“It’s been obvious the last kind of two years that the way I play golf is aggressive. No matter where I’m playing or who I’m playing with, I’m going at things. 

“The way my scorecard goes, it’s like a rollercoaster. It’s the way I enjoy golf but, overall, I’m delighted with how it went.”

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MacIntyre has dreamed of playing Augusta National ever since he was a young kid. Until this week, the closest he got was the controller of his Playstation. Fortunately, it has more than lived up to his expectations.

“The course is right up my street,” he said. “You’ve got to shape your shots. You can’t just step up and bomb it. You’ve got to really think and, if you’re out of position, you’ve got to think even more. So I love the golf course and my game’s in decent shape for it.”

As far as Sunday goes, there’s only one thing on MacIntyre’s mind in Georgia: winning.

“That’s what I’m here for,” he insisted. “I’m not here just to make up the numbers. I got here on merit and I’m here to win a golf tournament. If I wasn’t here to win, I’d be sitting at home with my feet up watching it. I’m here now and I’m trying to win it.

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“I’ll go out tomorrow and play the same golf. You don’t know what’s going to happen with the leaders. If I can cut out the bogeys, I’m making plenty of birdies so who knows?

“If I can go out and shoot five or six-under-par, we’ll sit back, watch it all unfold and I might be in with a chance.”