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Robert MacIntyre has backed his sporting idol Andy Murray to achieve his ambition of becoming a scratch golfer “in no time”.
Murray has swapped his racket for a set of clubs since his retirement from tennis, the two-time Wimbledon champion even changing his profile description on X to “I played tennis. I now play golf”.
The 37-year-old, who currently has a handicap of seven, partnered MacIntyre in the pro-am ahead of this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the Ryder Cup star was impressed with what he saw.
“It was brilliant,” MacIntyre said. “It was like a dream come true for me, (to play with) a sporting idol of mine. If I achieve half of what he achieved in his sport, then I’ll have overachieved to be honest with you.
“He was good for a guy that’s obviously not played that much golf. But he did say he was practising a hell of a lot in the lead up to this, and I thought he was good.
“I was very impressed with his game. I mean, he’ll be at scratch in no time.”
Murray believes it will take him a couple of years to achieve that goal and admitted he was feeling the nerves when he teed off on the 18th hole in front of large crowds.
“I couldn’t really feel my arms and legs,” Murray said. “I didn’t really hit any balls on the range beforehand. Yeah, I was feeling it. But it got better. It got better as the round went on.
“It’s a different sort of nerves (to Wimbledon) because you are comfortable in the tennis environment. I’m not thinking I’m going to walk out on the tennis court and forget how to hit the ball, you just want to perform well.
“Whereas here, you’re sort of nervous about there’s people standing like five metres away from where I’m driving, and I’m like, I’m useless at this game. You just want to try and keep the ball in play and don’t mess up too much.
“I’m happy playing in front of nobody to be honest. I’ve obviously got a lot of free time just now, so playing a few times a week, having lessons and just enjoying having something to focus my attention on.”
Murray also admitted he has lost weight since ending his tennis career.
It was like a dream come true for me, (to play with) a sporting idol of mine. If I achieve half of what he achieved in his sport, then I'll have overachieved to be honest with you— Robert MacIntyre on Andy Murray
He said: “I think just less calories and probably loss of muscle. I’ve lost about 11, 12 pounds. It’s a lot. I was expecting the opposite to happen. It’s about five kilos.”
Murray’s dad William was his caddie for the day at Wentworth, although it may well be a short-lived arrangement.
“My dad might be getting the sack after his performance today,” joked Murray, who is a member of the golf club in his home town of Dunblane.
“He spent most of his time sort of following Bob around. I was like ‘I need my clubs, I need to putt’.
“But no, it was brilliant. During my tennis career I didn’t get to spend loads of time with my dad travelling and everything. So getting to do that, it was a really cool day, as well.”
