How do you win a golf event? Well, you try not to win it. That’s how Robert MacIntyre sees it anyway. And who are we to argue? But more about his theory shortly.
The one they all want to win this week, of, course is The Open. Royal Troon is ready, the players are straining like whippets in the slips and all and sundry have performed that annual pin the tail on the donkey ritual. Just who will lift the Claret Jug?
Experts, analysts, pundits, punters, commentators, bookmakers, doyens, past players, current players, swing gurus, soothsayers, religious zealots, heretics. Even the golf writers have had a go.
Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1, is the name that most of the above would plump for. He’s won six times this year.
The last man to rattle off half a dozen wins on the PGA Tour before July was Arnold Palmer in 1962. And he added a seventh in The Open of that year at, yes, you’ve guessed it, Troon.
We do like an omen, don’t we? For us tartan-tinged observers, galvanised and giddy following MacIntyre’s win in the Genesis Scottish Open at the Renaissance last weekend, it feels like the stars are aligning.
The Oban lefty became the first home winner of the domestic showpiece for 25 years. It’s also a quarter of a century since a Scotsman, Paul Lawrie, last hoisted the Claret Jug. Fate?
“It's possible,” said MacIntyre with a glint in his eye when asked about his chances in the final men’s major of the season. “I've got as much chance as everyone else in the field. And my job is to go out there, fight as hard as I can, try my best, and hopefully get in a position where I can just have a chance.”
With around 250,000 spectators expected this week – a mighty hike on the 170,000 that trooped through the gates here back in 2016 – a good chunk of them will be backing MacIntyre.
The weight of expectation is akin to the burden that old Atlas used to heave on his shoulders but calm, canny MacIntyre has “zero expectations” and is adopting the aforementioned mantra about trying not to win.
In this game, winning, at any level, isn’t easy. Whether it’s a major championship or the Husband & Wife Salver, getting over the line requires a certain something.
MacIntyre has that certain something. But we’d better let him explain what it is. “Myrtle Beach taught me not to try and win golf tournaments,” said the Scot as he referenced May’s Myrtle Beach Classic on the PGA Tour where he was leading at halfway and right in the thick of it on the final day before his title tilt unravelled.
“I teed it up on Sunday at Myrtle Beach and my goal was to win the golf tournament. I birdied the first and everything was great. I then double-bogeyed the second and I think the golf tournament's gone.
“The minute you think that, your emotions are all over the place. You lose all control of yourself. You lose your thought process, your touch, everything.
“Then at the US PGA, I did the complete opposite. I thought I had a chance but my job was not to do what I'd done at Myrtle Beach. I stayed calm, stayed in the fight and jumped into the top-10.
“That was a real light switch moment that made me think, ‘you know what, the golf game isn't the problem, I'm the problem’. Then in Canada, I was a great position all week, I stayed calm and won.”
This, the 152nd Open, is the final one under the stewardship of R&A chief executive, Martin Slumbers, who retires from his post later this year. His first Open was here at Royal Troon in 2016. Things have changed a bit since then.
“It surprised me when I came here in 2016,” he reflected. “There were 170,000 people in a week around this course. It sort of felt empty. Grandstands weren’t full very often. The image wasn’t that great.
"Big-time sport is so much better when there’s lots of crowds and there’s lots of noise and there’s lots of enthusiasm.”
The course is in terrific nick. Perils and pitfalls abound. A plunge or a dribble into one of the 96 bunkers could see players digging their own golfing grave.
They don’t call one of those sandtraps ‘Coffin’ for nothing. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes. Or should it be thrashes to thrashes? It was for German amateur, Herman Tissies, who took 13 swipes to get his ball out of the thing back in 1950.
“They're hazards, they're deep,” said Slumbers with ghoulish relish. “They've got big faces, and they're designed to stay out of. As you know, links golf is very simple. Stay out of the bunkers.”
After the jubilant celebrations that followed his Scottish Open win – “I think it was quite right to go absolutely wild” – MacIntyre is ready for another week at the office. It’s not a bad life.
“Don't be scared to dream,” was his message to any starry-eyed young ‘uns watching on. “A lot of kids out there will be told to do certain things because things aren't achievable. But with hard work, sacrifice, dedication, anything's possible.”
After his silver lining last Sunday, MacIntyre continues to prove that dreams can come true.
