We all need to let off a bit of steam now and again. After a bad day at the golfing office, for instance, Robert MacIntyre can often generate the kind of billowing plumes that would erupt from one of Fred Dibnah’s traction engines.
In this game of myriad frustrations, MacIntyre has always worn his heart on his sleeve. A thump on the bag here, a rip of the glove there, a torrent of cursings and cussings everywhere?
When the gasket blows, you’d better stand back. “I’m pretty good at telling everyone, ‘just give me an hour’,” he said of his post round procedure when things haven’t gone according to plan.
“I can go as mental as I want for an hour and after that, I just go back to life. But for that hour, I can break things and do whatever I want.”
It certainly conjures up some deliciously chaotic imagery, doesn’t it? Before his hour of seething pandemonium commences, MacIntyre usually gives a state of the nation address to the golf writers. We all stand at a safe distance, of course.
After a disappointing defence of his Genesis Scottish Open title at the Renaissance last weekend, MacIntyre had a few things to get out of his system.
“If you have a bad day at work, you're going to be annoyed,” he added. “Last week, I wasn't in the thick of it. There was no buzz for me.
“But I'm fiery on the golf course when I'm in tournament rounds. I'll drop a few bad words, I'll hit the bag, I'll say some harsh things, but that's what gets me going.
“If I walk around and I'm all happy after a double bogey, that's not me. I'm needing to smash something up. I want to rip a glove. I do something to get that anger out. It's better out than in for me so it doesn’t affect the next shot. Simple.”
Here at Royal Portrush, MacIntyre has reset and is raring to go at the 153rd Open Championship. This is the place where it all started for him in the majors back in 2019 when he made his debut in The Open and shared sixth place.
It was the best result by a Scot in The Open since Colin Montgomerie was second at St Andrews in 2005.
The lads and lassies at The Oban Times were just about preparing a commemorative supplement as he posted a closing 68 in increasingly grisly conditions and watched the later starters toil.
When it was all done and dusted, MacIntyre had been elevated into the top-10.
“I got a little bit lucky when I managed to finish just in time before the storm came in,” he reflected of the break he got from Mother Nature.
“I remember sitting in player dining, and it just kept blowing. I thought the roof was coming off the place. I was like, ‘keep coming, keep coming’. I was just watching my name get further up the leaderboard.”
Six years on from that thrilling maiden major outing, MacIntyre has returned to the Antrim coast as a two-time PGA Tour winner, a Ryder Cup player, the world No 14 and a genuine contender for the old Claret Jug.
Despite his lofty status, the 28-year-old doesn’t read too much into the pre-championship hype and hoopla.
“People may have picked me to win it, but there are so many guys this week that can win this tournament,” he said with calm reason.
“I'm going to go out there, enjoy playing Royal Portrush again and give it my absolute best. That's all I can guarantee.”
The wonderful examination posed by the rigorous Dunluce links is one that MacIntyre revels in.
“It's how the golf course flows,” he said of the course’s abundant qualities, charms and challenges.
“It's not nine holes one way, nine holes the other way. There is everything on this golf course visually. So many courses try to trick it up.
"But here, you've got holes that you've got a chance on, and then you've got holes that you just try to hang on.
“I just think the whole golf course is absolutely beautiful to the eye, but it also plays absolutely brilliantly.”
After the firm and fiery test at the Renaissance last week, which gave MacIntyre issues with his irons and messed with his distance control, the softer conditions here at Portrush, brought about by some hefty downpours, are not causing the Scot such problems.
“We’ve had some rain, it’s greener already on the range and I’m seeing the stroke off the face (of the club) and I’m seeing the ball flight up in the sky,” he said.
“The irons I use help me get the club out of the ground because I'm steep. Last week, because it was brick hard, the club wouldn't go in the ground. It’s a completely different week here.”
It sure is. It’s Open week.
