Bob MacIntyre has revealed that he felt like curling and crying after squeezing into the weekend at The Open.
The 25-year-old Oban ace just made it on the cut mark of level par. It was MacIntyre's 10th successive cut success in the majors. But his total meant he was in the third pairing out in the third round at St Andrews, shooting a best of the week 69 to improve to three-under-par.
And after back-to-back top-10 finishes in his two previous Opens, MacIntyre has felt the pressure of expectation generated by the game’s tartan army. He said: “The fan support is absolutely brilliant, but I’ve been feeling it because you know how much it means to them. There are so many people supporting me and it means so much. I wasn’t going to let them down, but I was almost trying too hard.
“I've never been as stressed on a golf course in my life as I was yesterday. With seven holes to go, I don't know what was going on. I had to turn away from the actual fairway on 16 because there was too much going on.
“I was sitting at the dinner table afterwards just slouched, not knowing what to do. I was trying to eat, but I was done. I could have curled up in a ball when I finished and cried." But MacIntyre is determined to produce a big finish in his quest to earn an automatic place at next year’s Hoylake Open.
He added: “I enjoyed it today because there was no consequence. I was hitting shots I wouldn't have hit yesterday.
“For instance, on the 16th I hit bang driver down the left. Whereas yesterday I had to turn away on that hole because I just had to switch off from golf for a second to give me a bit of peace.
“But tomorrow is going to be absolutely brilliant. I'll be out a bit later and hopefully shoot lower than today and get the crowd going.”
