Q. You've got to be massively happy. 62-64 around here is pretty good.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I've played beautifully the last two days. Yesterday the putter was on fire. Today I felt like my iron play was exceptional. But I've been putting in the work the last couple of weeks to make it -- to improve on what I was doing since the Wyndham. Obviously coming from links golf back out to throwing darts is a bit different technique-wise, turf-wise, so it took a little bit of readjusting, but I've got the hang of it.
Q. Putting has statistically flipped since PGA; you talked yesterday about the changes you've made, but when did the confidence really set in with that club on the greens?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, it's been good. Probably came after -- even the weekend of the PGA was good. Probably statistically wasn't great, but I felt far more comfortable over the putter, and I've always said when I'm comfortable with a putter in my hands, it's a dangerous thing. Since the PGA, it's been feeling great in the hands.
I do a lot of technique stuff with that, and then once I've done that, it's just let it flow.
Q. A lot of focus on your putting this week, but your ability to recover after missing the fairway on some of the drives on 7, on 18, still put yourself in a position to score and reach the green in two, how important has that been to getting so low this week?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, it is important, but it's not -- we're missing it on the right sides, so the targets we're picking probably isn't the middle of the fairway. The targets we're picking might be right half of the fairway, knowing if I'm going to miss it, hit it short, it's going to miss on the right side. Likes of 5, the birdie on 5 or 6 or 7 was it, like you miss that on the left-hand side, it's an awkward angle to the pin. You miss it on the right side, straight forward, you're going to get it around the green, front edge.
Same on 18; for me, that tee shot, trouble up the right, don't want to hit my normal draw. Yeah, I'll probably be up there the next two days.
It's just about picking smart shots, smart targets and then just dealing with what comes.
Q. On 16 there, the look for eagle, you had a discussion with one of the officials there, just worried if the ball had moved as you were approaching.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, it moved, and my putter was down behind the ball about half an inch, three-quarters of an inch behind the ball. The ball moved.
But I've had a couple this week that -- my ball plugged on I think it was 5, the tee shot, and at the par-3 plugged, and the ball wouldn't sit in its spot, so I had to find a near spot. But the greens are running at about 13 on the stimp on the flat, so the minute you get on a slope, they're running about 16, 17, so they're quick, and the ball will not sit on certain slopes.
When you mark it and you replace it exactly where you're meant to, sometimes it's not in the exact spot that it's laid in, and then it just won't set. We had a few -- Hideki had one today as well when he was chipping. Yeah, it's closely-mown stuff.
Q. Do you like putting on quick greens? A little different than what you face back home?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, it's good. You've just got to be on the right side of the holes. Everyone will say it; if you're on the wrong side of the holes it's going to be carnage out here.
I feel like this week I've really done a good job of getting it underneath the hole to be able to be aggressive with an uphill putt. The hardest putts are the ones probably five, six, seven, eight feet down the hill where you're just breathing on it, touching it to get it going and you just stand there and watch it bob and weave its way down the hill and fearing where it's going to end. But yeah, I don't mind quick greens.
Q. Do you remember ever having this big of a lead in a tournament?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Not as a professional, I don't think. But I've had it before as an amateur. Yeah, again, it's only 36 holes gone. There's a long way to go. I'm comfortable with who I am. I'm comfortable with the team around me, and I'm comfortable on this golf course. Just go and play golf.
Q. Do you think you would have said the same a year and a half ago or two years ago? Do you feel like that comfort has really come on recently?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I believe I'm able to compete at this level. I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe that, and I've had so many experiences in my life that have helped me to get here from whether it's normal life back home in Oban fighting for -- fighting as an amateur, different sports back home, and then experiences as a Ryder Cup, winning in Scotland, Canada. I've experienced the majority of it, and then this year at the U.S. Open, I felt things that I never thought I would ever feel.
Yeah, I'm ready for the weekend.
Q. Are you more comfortable being here in the U.S.?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I don't spend -- I don't spend my off weeks anymore over here as much. Last year we tried to live here, but I travel back and forward now. Yeah, I love home. It's no secret. It's probably not going to change. But everything that means anything to me is in Scotland, so why be anywhere else.
Q. You and Hideki both shot 64s today. When your playing partner is playing well like that, are you able to feed off that at all?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, you are, and it's good when you're kinda, good shot, good shot, back and forward. It's always good when your playing partner is playing well and you're not seeing wild shots, you're seeing good shots. If he's going before you, he's hitting the fairway, hitting the greens, so you get to see good shots. It makes it far easier when you're trying to execute something yourself.
Yeah, when you see something happening good before you, well, it frees you up a little bit.
Q. Give us a sense of what the next couple hours going into tonight look like for you as you prepare to finish strong this weekend.
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I don't even know the time. Probably get a coffee before 4:00 and then get dinner, chill out, sit and watch the golf, speak to my family and friends back home and drink a couple of Coca-Colas and go to bed.
Q. Question about golf and shinty. You used the word "fight." I've heard you use that word a lot over the last three or four years. What does it mean to you, because we're talking about fight in shinty when it can be physical and fight in golf when it can't be. What is your definition of being a good fighter when you're playing a very calm sport?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, I'm not very calm on the golf course. But shinty is a physical contact sport where the fight is not so much physical fight, but it's like, don't go in half-hearted; don't go 50/50 in a tackle; that's when you get injured. Go 100 percent in a tackle, and hopefully you win the tackle. If not, you get back up and you go again.
Golf is exact -- that's the way I treat it. Yesterday I hit a bad tee shot on 12 into the water. When it's a tough test, I find it easier, when you know people are making bogeys. But it was just get there, make a drop, think about what you're doing, and it's more of a switch on for me. In golf, it's more focusing more and just do not give up, no matter what. Do not give up. There's times when it's not going well and you want to throw in the towel, but it's not what I do.
For me, it's just try your hardest until it's done and someone tells you to stop.
Q. Along those lines, there was a time probably a couple years ago where you notoriously were a bit of a slow starter and then got it going. Did you ever concentrate or contemplate more going at the get-go?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Yeah, there's a couple of things that I've changed. This event last year I was injured. I injured myself, I think, before the second round. We know statistically that I was slower in the mornings. My scoring average wasn't as good in the morning as it was in the afternoon. We looked at that. We checked out why that was.
We've not scientifically found out the answer. We've kind of worked it out between my team and I, from bands to heart rate monitors to everything, and I'm warming up now before my rounds, stretching, doing some stuff in the gym before I play now so that when I get out there, I'm ready to go.
To be honest, I got told by a very successful Scottish athlete that sleep is the most important thing that he learnt in his career, and it's something that I really prioritize before a day is my sleep.
Q. Would we know who this Scottish athlete is?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Probably one of the greatest sportsmen, Andy Murray. When I played the pro-am with him it was one of the things I asked him, and he really said the biggest thing he learnt for recovery was his sleep, so let's get the head down.
Q. I thought he was British. Only when he loses?
ROBERT MacINTYRE: Correct. Or Scottish just now.
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