Bob MacIntyre lifts lid on caddie’s honest words that inspires stunning fightback at The Open.

Bob MacIntyre admitted he’d been “staring 90 in the face” after a horror start to his second round in the 152nd Open before salvaging his pride in front of the home fans by producing a sensational fightback at Royal Troon.

In brutal conditions for the later starters on the Ayrshire coast, the Oban man opened with a triple-bogey 7, then dropped shots at the next two holes before taking a triple-bogey 8 at the fourth. Dropping him to nine over and three shots outside the projected cut in the season’s final major, it seemed as though MacIntyre was about to be brought down to earth with a bump after his brilliant Genesis Scottish Open win in East Lothian last weekend.

But, showing the fighting qualities that he spoke about in the wake of that Rolex Series win that catapulted him into the world’s top 20, he then covered the remaining 14 holes in four under par to end up making it through to the weekend with one shot to spare on five over.

“That was carnage,” admitted the 27-year-old after signing for a 75 to add to his opening 72. “I was actually nervous going out today, and I said it to the whole team. They’re like why? Because that front nine was going to be carnage for me. It’s difficult.

“I’m just thankful Mike [Burrow, his caddie] managed to keep me somewhat calm once the head had gone completely when I made that 8 on four and kind of started to talk sense to me. We discussed what just happened. When we peeled it back, we actually didn’t hit that many bad tee shots. In fact, we didn’t hit any bad tee shots.

“Once he started to talk sense to me, I started to realise, you know what, you actually haven’t played that bad, and you’re shooting gazillions here, and that’s where we kind of calmed down and got closer down into the left wind where we could actually play some golf.

I didn’t think I was going to make the weekend, but Mike said ‘look, fans are here to watch. Just give them what they want, a severe dig and fight, and that’s what I did. I just tried my best and managed to turn it around.

“After four holes, I was staring 90 in the face. If that wind had stayed up and it actually did stay the same. It was just I’ve got a lot of pride in myself, Mike’s got a lot of pride in his work. Once he straightened my head a little bit and we kind of regained focus, it was right back to work.”

On a day when Rory McIlroy, Bryson DeChambeau, Tiger Woods, Ludvig Aberg, and Viktor Hovland all missed the cut, MacIntyre left the home fans heading home happy as he joined amateur Calum Scott and Ewen Ferguson in making the cut.

“You could see me getting angrier and angrier and angrier. The golf game was going away from me. I was hitting stupid shots, hitting terrible shots,” he added. “Once we calmed down, it was just simply, right, how do we get this thing in under 90 at one point, but really it was trying to break 80.

“I just started taking golf shots that I thought was the best way to get around the golf course, whether it was a big high slice with the wind or a little chip 7-iron up a fairway to try to get it front edge. It was literally damage limitation at one point. Once we started hitting good shots, we just built on it.”

Asked if he’d been able to pull off such a ‘Great Escape’ a year ago before playing in a winning Ryder Cup team and winning twice on the PGA Tour, he replied: “No, I’d have been gone. I’d have been in my car already and up the road. The attitude has been massive for me the last probably 12-15 weeks. It’s been superb. The start wasn’t good, but the end was good. You’ve just got to try to calm yourself down and fight as hard as you can.”

In just his second appearance in the Claret Jug event in 2021, MacIntyre holed a long birdie putt to make it through to the weekend before recording a top ten. He’s 12 shots behind the leader, Irishman Shane Lowry, on this occasion but is ready to give it his best shot.

“To be honest, anything’s possible in links golf, especially with the weather. I think it’s going to be raining tomorrow,” he said. “Look, I’m just proud of the way I fought, kind of making this cut, especially after last week. The support I had out there was unbelievable. With that start, I felt like I was letting everyone down, not just myself, but my team and the fans. But it was just about fighting, and they helped me a long way.