When you’re looking to produce a final flourish, the last thing you need is a first hole fiasco. “I thought it was the perfect wedge,” said Robert MacIntyre of his flicked approach to the opening green on day four of The Open Championship. “But I got the first bad spin I’ve had here in seven days and it went back into the burn. I was absolutely gobsmacked by it. I actually thought it was going to be a tap-in birdie and then it ends up in the water.”
That plunge into the Swilcan Burn cost MacIntyre two shots as he started his closing circuit of the Old Course with a double-bogey six. Like a panel beater thumping out the dents on a damaged car, though, MacIntyre got to work and produced a fine repair job. A couple of eagles put the polish on a spirited four-under 68 for a seven-under aggregate.
