Q. 7-under for the round. How would you assess your day?
ROBERT MACINTYRE: It was good. Got off to a good start, obviously, on the front nine. Kind of built up a bit of momentum and then just hung on to it really. It got really tough on the back nine so I was just trying to manage the misses well.
17th I was happy to get out of there with a bogey after my tee shot. Overall a great day.
Q. Afternoon was playing a little bit windier. Was there an advantage with you being a little bit more used to the wind than some of the others?
ROBERT MACINTYRE: I mean, it can be. I think it's just for me about trusting what I'm doing, picking the shot, executing the shot, and then just dealing with wherever it ends up. That's kind of the job I've been doing the last few weeks, and I've done it well today.
Q. Where are you feeling most comfortable in your game?
ROBERT MACINTYRE: To be honest, coming into this week, not a lot. But I made a few tweaks in the last two days, and I've been rolling the ball really nice on the greens. The greens are absolutely perfect out there on the course.
Today I done everything pretty well. Drove it well, iron play well, wedges -- it's not really a wedge golf course, so don't have too many of them, but yeah, overall, all around good game.
Q. Rookie year a lot of times seeing courses for the first time can be tough, but this week, brand new event. Kind of an even playing field; is that nice?
ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, it is really nice, to be fair. It's been a difficult start. It's a complete different change coming from the DP World, a whole different environment. It's still golf, but today I've played with Foxy, who's a good friend of mine from playing in Europe, and we actually said before we teed off, we're just going to have a laugh today, and the two of us were laughing all the way down, having some fun, having jokes, and it just makes it easier.
Q. The putt on the last hole for birdie, was that a lag that went in or were you pretty confident with the line? No one has been making much there.
ROBERT MACINTYRE: No, to be honest, from that range you're just trying to make par. You're trying to hole it, but you're just trying to make good speed, and in my head, when I've lined it up, I try and get away from the outcome and trying to -- I just say, just hit it out of the middle of the putter, and that's what I've done. I've got good touch around the greens, so when I get on them it's all about speed control. Yeah, I thought I putted really well today.
Q. Can you talk some about the tweaks that you had mentioned that you had made? Is there anything specific?
ROBERT MACINTYRE: No, we're just spinning wheels. We're spinning plates every week. We're trying to get the best golfer out on the golf course that we can possibly get.
I went home for three weeks there and didn't touch a golf club. Well, I touched them twice in three weeks when I was home, and I was a bit rusty the first couple of weeks. Obviously I had a nice top 10 with Thomas at the Zurich last week. The scoring was outrageous.
Then this week, you've got to play golf. You've got to shape shots. You've got to move the ball. You've got to think.
I think that's when I play my best golf, on golf courses where you've got to think and you've got to manage your golf ball.
Q. How does this course stack up as a TOUR course?
ROBERT MACINTYRE: It's unbelievable. It's a great track. I didn't know what to expect coming here obviously with the other tournament going on just now. I thought we might have a lesser golf course. But this is top drawer. When I pitched up or before I got here, my caddie Scott was like, you're going to enjoy this place, it's a great track. It needs a bit of breeze, but we've got that this afternoon, and I think it's a great golf course. It really -- I enjoy it visually. To my eye, it looks good. The greens are absolutely perfect.
Q. The wind, it really picked up on the back. Can you talk a little bit about the bunker shot that you hit on your 16th hole? The wind is howling, you put it up there. Can you walk me through that, the club you hit?
ROBERT MACINTYRE: Yeah, we had 147 yards to the pin, about 132 to the front, and I'm in the bunker and I'm looking at it going, there's a lip in front of me, I can't flight it. I'm trying to calculate how far -- how much hurt the wind has been having. I've grown up in wind, so by the sea here just now, you know it's going to affect it a lot when it goes into the sky. Knowing that I couldn't flight it down, that's a full pitching wedge normally if it's flat calm, and I went with my 7-iron and hit it as high as I could. I knew it was going to get hurt 30 plus yards. It worked out better than I thought it would.
But it's kind of as I planned it.
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