2 weeks ago
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Bob MacIntyre admits he feared his Scottish Open title defence was over at the halfway stage as he scrambled to make the cut at The Renaissance.
The Scot struggled during his second round, with a wayward drive on the 13th leading to a lost ball and a double bogey.
That dropped him back to one-over par and it looked like the defending champion would be heading home early.
But MacIntyre rallied and staged an impressive fightback, birdieing two of his last five holes to sneak in right on the cut-mark at one-under par.
‘I played absolutely terribly,’ he said. ‘I am just disappointed with the performance. Anything I tried to do to fix it just seemed to make it worse. But I’m in it for the weekend still.
‘When I see so many people out there supporting me and pushing me on, that definitely helped in terms of being able to bring it back.
Home favourite Bob MacIntyre missed the cut by the slimmest of margins
The defending champion had to enlist some extra help to find his ball on the 13th
Two birdies in the final five holes were enough to see him finish the day one-under par
'I am normally really good off the tee in terms of being able to take a lot of trouble out of the equation. If there’s trouble on one side, I will usually be good at playing down the opposite side.
‘But today was just one of those days where no matter how much I tried to stay away from trouble, I just always seemed to end up in it.
‘On the par four 13th, I think that was one of the worst shots I’ve hit all year in terms of how much trouble is there — and I hit it right into it.
‘When I was looking for my ball (and didn’t find it), I thought: “Oh well, that’ll be that, this is curtains”. I could have lost the plot there.
‘But to get out of here the way I did, and to still be here for the weekend, there’s positives in it.’
MacIntyre’s brace of late birdies both came at par threes down the stretch. After a two on the 14th, he then followed it with another on the 17th after knocking his tee shot to within four feet of the hole.
Acknowledging that he had to dig deep, including holding a testing putt on the 18th, he continued: ‘I guess growing up at Glencruitten on a short golf course with loads of par threes helped me in the end.
‘It was 50-50 whether the cut was one or two over. I thought it would be two, but Mike (his caddie) kept telling me it had been sitting at one all day, so it might be tight, but more than likely it’s going to sit at one. I just kept fighting.
Leader Chris Gotterup equalled the course record with a stunning round of 61
Rory McIlroy took full advantage of good early conditions to move on to seven-under par
‘I mean, I went to one-over par, so two-under over those final few holes, almost unthinkable from where I was and the way I was playing.
‘The closer that was to one-under or even going the other way, the better it was for me. There’s no other way to describe today than a poor performance, but I just fought it out and ground it out and got away with it.’
Chris Gotterup leads the way on 11-under after the big-hitting American equalled the course record with a magnificent round of 61.
Englishman Harry Hall leads the chase and is two shots back heading into the weekend, with Rory McIlroy and fellow Ryder Cup stars Matt Fitzpatrick, Sepp Straka and Ludvig Aberg all nicely poised to challenge.
