Robert MacIntyre delivered on Sunday to earn his way into the Tour Championship next week and he did so despite battling an injury.
MacIntyre withdrew from the FedEx St. Jude Championship last week, the first leg of the playoffs, after an opening-round 82 and dropped to No. 36 in the season-long in St. Louis, he delivered with a final-round 5-under 65 and jumped to T-7. That lifted him to No. 25 in the season-long standings and secure a (and most likely
“I didn't know what it was,” MacIntyre said of a pain he described as like someone stabbing him in the bottom of the hamstring. “I've been getting serious pain when I squat down to read a putt and stuff, and after a long day's practice session, and the way I've been playing lately I've been putting in long hours and just struggling to explode out of it and twist on it at the same time. And, yeah, I was just, it was time to try and rest up and get prepared for this week.”
MacIntyre started the day on the outside looking in to make the top 30 and the Tour Championship, but he made six birdies and one bogey to make it to Atlanta for the third straight year.
“It's good to extend the season on the PGA Tour an extra week. Satisfying round of golf today. It was absolutely beautiful,” he said, noting when he became discouraged by a bogey at the fourth hole, his caddie cheered him up quickly. “But Mike just kept telling me, ‘There's going to be plenty of chances the way you're playing.’ And the way I was shaping into some of the pins, hitting good distances. But, yeah, just to score the way I've scored in the time that I needed it.”MacIntyre has at times been his own worst enemy when his game is off. Known for his fiery temper, he received warnings at both the Masters and British Open for his behavior on the course. But this week he managed to keep in a proper frame of mind. He said he was staying in a house on his own and watched positive sports movies such as “Rudy” and “The Rookie” every single night.
“Just to try and make me believe in what I was trying to do and what I was doing was right,” he said. “I suppose it worked.”
