GENESIS SCOTTISH OPEN

July 9, 2025

Robert MacIntyre

The Renaissance Club

Press Conference

BRIONY CARLYON: Delighted to welcome our defending champion, Robert MacIntyre back to the Genesis Scottish Open.

A slightly different start to the press conference as we have your bag there to the right, which is looking lovely but can you just maybe give us an update on a special piece of equipment for you?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, obviously the My Name'5 Doddie Tartan, MND. We have got Scott Stewart who passed away last year, and just trying to be someone that raises awareness of MND to be honest with you.

With the bag this year, we've kind of tried to, we go to certain events and try to make it special for the event and this year, obviously, with the passing of Scott, also I've got a close family friend who has now also got it. We thought, well, what a place to do it. Just to try and -- I'm going to try my best to raise awareness. There's so many other people like Scott that have done a great job of raising awareness and raising money for the cause. I'm just a small part of that that's trying to keep it going.

BRIONY CARLYON: You came off the golf course, and there's a grandstand off the 9th named after Scott and his memory. How special was that?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, it's nice. Obviously it's a sad occasion but obviously his family, his wife, his parents were there, as well. It's just trying to battle a hellish disease to be honest with you. And I keep saying it; I'm just a small, small part of that. I try my best to raise as much money, awareness, everything that we can to try and battle this disease.

BRIONY CARLYON: I'm sure last year you gave him some great pleasure watching you hole that putt on 18 and now back a year later, what was that moment like for you and having your family and friends and the Scottish crowds here to witness that?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: It was unbelievable. Obviously the win in Canada was special with my dad but winning The Scottish Open was above it.

As a kid growing up, I watched The Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and dreamed of playing in it and once I got playing in it, I'm thinking, let's win this thing, and obviously coming close. But last year, when that putt drops, I keep watching it over and over again. I was struggling, my putting was up-and-down like a roller coaster, and when I struggle, I look at these moments, and I remember the highs when the putter does come, it really turns it on.

Q. Whether we spoke on the Media Day for this tournament, you spoke about how you've got this one in the bag now and maybe goals will change a little bit and it might be prepare for next week. But now you're here and see the pictures and you have the memories; has that changed?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Again, I'm coming here to win The Scottish Open. I mean, it's the biggest golf tournament, I would say, outside of the major championships for me. I've won it once. But every time I pitch up, I want to win it again.

I've prepared as well as I could. Obviously I took a few days down playing links golf at Machrihanish just to get used to hitting the shots again, seeing the ball running. So yeah, I'm not looking at next week. I'm looking to try to and defend this title.

Q. This event has been a huge part of your journey over the last few years. Can you talk how you first felt when you first came here compared to how you feel now?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, my first year in 2019, I got paired with Rory and Rickie first round. The nerves on that first tee with the crowd and the expectation, somewhat, that I had in myself, I mean, the nerves were unbelievable.

But I remember how I responded. I birdied the first hole and it just kind of -- I try and take everything in my stride as much as I can. You can't -- when you're doing this, you can't shy away from anything. If you get an opportunity, you just, the way I do it, I go straight at it. If you've got a chance, just straight at it, what's the worst that can happen; you fail. I feel like that's the way I've done my whole career. So far, slow and steady. Obviously you get up-and-down within the year. But I set goals. I set mini goals. I set targets within the year for future years. Just keep slowly going a path.

But the biggest thing is day-to-day having the right people around you. Obviously people come into the team and people go out of the team. But it's just about having the same -- everyone on the team has to have the same target and the same goals and I think I've got a good team around me that we can keep pushing now and the next target is to win a major.

Q. You talk about yourself as a wee boy from Oban. How does a we boy from Oban look at the images playing with world No. 1, Scottie Scheffler? Do you pinch yourself?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I do but I hate seeing myself and I hate listening to myself. That's one of the rules in the house, when there's a clip of me, I don't want to hear myself speak.

Yeah, it's part of it, I suppose. Yeah, I don't really worry about all the photos and stuff. I just go and play my golf.

But it is surreal to know the path that I've gone on and the results that I've had, as a kid growing um, you hit putts on putting greens to win this, to win that, and I mean to actually be in the tournaments and have chances to really live them moments is all I can ask for. Whether you win it or not, it's like you've got the chance and they are special.

Q. In terms of the win last year coming into this year, and the psychology of it, what does it mean in terms of is there pressure off a little bit or is there more expectation? Talk to us a little bit about the psychology of what that win meant going into this year.

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I think the pressure is off, obviously with, me saying how much I wanted this golf tournament and we wanted to win this tournament.

I think the pressure is off on that side of it because I have won it now but the expectation is not from me; from outside, the fans, no people within my team because they know it's a process and we do certain things. From the outside, the expectation is through the roof.

But again, I can't control that. I've just got to go out there, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, prepare as well as I can. I feel I've done that this week, and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we give it our best shot. Hopefully come Sunday on the back nine, we just have to kind of flip the coin or roll the dice, however you want to say it, and if it falls your way, perfect, like it did last year.

But again, you just keep giving yourself opportunities and you're going to fall across line at some point.

Q. Bit of a throw back question. Your first round as a pro, was that back in Jordan or Kuwait, 78, was it, if I remember?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Aye.

Q. Given what you've achieved since then, can you talk about that moment as a young lad, first pro event and it starts like that?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I was going out, the MENA Tour at the time, I was going out as an amateur and I phoned Stoddy up one day and I said what's the point going out here and not making any money? We decided to turn pro. Went out there.

Again, it just small stages in your career. I was really, really nervous. Different environment and yeah, I think it was 78 but then I had two good scores backing that up, finished second or third in the tournament. Got a week off again in Dubai, and then went on to win the next week.

Yeah, it's just I'm someone who is not scared to take risks. I'm not someone scared to make a big decision. But they are not rash. They are calculated. What I do is -- as much as I play golf with feel and stuff, the bigger picture calculated and it's slow and steady rather than just a big jump into the middle and let's see what happens.

It's always, we build things. I think when I was an amateur, I changed golf swing slightly, still kept my DNA, changed it, get the flight up. But it was to prepare for playing on the Tour because it's a different style of golf.

This week is completely different. It's a little bit firmer. So you can go back to old school, drive it low. But overall, my whole career-just slowly just navigated it. Go and see what the challenge is going to be like, right, as I step up, we have to do this better, go to the next level. You work things out.

Q. The next day you shot low; does that illustrate your tenacity that you have shown in subsequent years?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: It's working out what you need, what works. It's just watching what people are better than you do. Just try to see if you can use any of that to help you.

It's just a learning curve. It's just keep improving, keep learning, and the results will take care of themselves.

Q. Do you understand him okay?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I understand him better than you (laughter).

Q. Have you ever done anything rash?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: I mean I make rash decisions on a golf course when I lose my temper and stuff. I have made one rash decision in the last, probably, four years, five years. That was when I was changing coach. Obviously was working with Simon. Change again. Done it two weeks and I remember Simon saying, "I think you're firing the wrong man." It was a breaking up the line while we were saying and he thought I didn't hear it.

And I phoned him two week later with my tail between my legs saying, "Simon, you're right. Can I come back?" And here we are still working together. That was a rash decision. But in the long-term stuff, no. Everything's between me, Stoddy, Dell, the whole team around me. We sat down, we think about it, we look at stats, everything's -- that side of it is calculated and we just try and go with a decision and live by it.

Q. Secondly, for you, and really, for all the players, what is the difference in either anticipation or optimism about the major season when you're heading into Augusta, the first one, compared with when you're getting ready for The Open, the last one?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: For me, we got off to a slow start in the season, the last few years. It's just different. This season is log-jammed. If you looked at the locker room on the Sunday at the Travelers, everyone was dying to go home because it was just a long stretch. For me, I was out there 11 weeks, played 10 out of 11, was just running on empty. It's such a big golf tournament; you're trying your best.

It's difficult with how kind of condensed the season is now on the PGA TOUR, especially. It's just log-jammed and you just feel like you can't take a week off because if you take a week off, you're going backwards. It's difficult, that side of it. But you've got to trust your schedule. You've got to trust that you're going to get your run.

But it is very, very tiring.

Q. You were at Machrihanish last week, was that useful for this week, and was it unfair on you when I said that Belle Robertson was still the bigger Argyll and Bute legend?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: She's a legend. She come out and seen me when we're playing the Old Course at Machrihanish. But I just went there, I remember coming back here and I went to Troon to see Troon, a couple of days before coming here and it was amazing how much the golf ball was moving in a 20-mile-an-hour wind, and that's the reason I went to Machrihanish. It was like, go there, hit the same shot that you normally hit. Just let watch how much this thing is going to move.

It was just to get that feel, that sea air, the heavy wind, hitting the golf ball again, and just getting your eye seeing what you used to see. Whereas when I'm playing in America, I hit the ball up there, land it, normally on the number, it stops. It's just a completely different style of golf.

But since I've come back, since I've played more PGA TOUR now, then when I come back here and play links golf, I enjoy it way more than I used to because it used to just be the norm.

Q. The tee shot on the first --

ROBERT MacINTYRE: The fairway both times. It's all right for me. I can start it way right and I don't mind the wind. It was down off the right so it wasn't too much of a problem. But it's a spectacular opening hole. But no, they were brilliant, as a few of us went down and played. It was a good kind of day and a half.

Q. From a personal point of view, it's hard to win any tour but to do it back-to-back, how much would that mean to you?

ROBERT MacINTYRE: It would be unbelievable. I want to keep this trophy every year until I stop playing. But again, I pitch up here, and I want to win. It's the Scottish Open, and it's my almost Flagship Event, I would say, after the majors. I want to win it. I hope if I don't win it, a Scottish player wins it. It's just a special, special golf tournament with an unbelievable field.