Robert MacIntyre was the first left hander in living memory to win the Scottish Amateur title and he’s poised to follow it with the Amateur Championship crown itself in the final at Royal Porthcawl.
The 19-year-old from the Glencruitten club in Oban recovered from a late slip in his semi-final against Ireland’s Paul McBride to hit “the shot of my life” and win at the second extra hole, progressing to meet Scott Gregory, an English A squad member from the Corhampton club in Hampshire in the final.
The teenager also admitted to some delight at proving wrong the Scottish selectors who left him out of the six-man national team for the European Championships next month.
MacIntyre had already claimed the notable scalp of World No 4 Ivan Cantero in a testing quarter-final and seemed to be heading for a similar win over McBride, who had finished with two birdies to defeat Walker Cup star Ewen Ferguson in their quarter-final.
However at two down with two to play the young Irishman from The Island club in Dublin birdied 17 and then calmly levelled the match at the 18th when MacIntyre raced an 120 foot putt way past the hole and off the green on his way to a five.
The Scot missed a ten foot chance to atone on the 19th and looked to be in trouble at the 20th, but his outstanding two-iron to 18 feet from the rough seemed to spook his opponent, who hit his approach short and right and didn’t get up and down.
“After all that happened in the final holes, that was maybe the best shot I’ve in my life,” he said. “I was scared of getting a flier but the worst I was going to have was back edge of the green and I’d have taken that. Instead I hit it absolutely perfectly.”
MacIntyre is the third Scot in as many years to reach the Amateur final, following Bradley Neil in 2014 and Grant Forrest last year. As far as records show he is the first left hander in the Amateur final at least since World War II, and he admits there was a “bit of dig” for him this week after the selectors left him out of the Scotland team for the Europeans.
“I don’t think anyone knows why they picked the team before this week because they didn’t have to, and I think the other coaches from Ireland and England are laughing at them now,” he said. “It definitely gave me that extra wee bit of incentive this week to go out there and do it.”
MacIntyre won the Scottish Amateur at Muirfield last year – with his caddie this week, retired Glencruitten member Angus McKechan on the bag – and comes from a family of left handed players.
“Everyone, my Dad, My Mum, my sisters, played left handed even though I write right-handed,” he said. “I think it probably does come originally from playing shinty, like so many golfers in the Highlands.”
MacIntyre was at college in Louisiana but came back after a year and a half – “the lifestyle was a different as you could get for a boy from Oban”.
“I don’t regret it as I got into the world’s top 50 on the back of going there and it was good for my golf, but the facilities and the people I could work with were actually better back here overall,” he said.
His opponent Gregory (21) is a surprise finalist being not from the elite England squad but the second group, although he’ll probably make the step up now. He reached the final of the English Amateur in 2014 and the Spanish Amateur earlier this year but lost both.
It’s the first England-Scotland Amateur final since Stuart Wilson beat Lee Corfield at St Andrews in 2004; perhaps a good omen for the Oban boy.
Quarter-finals: A Meronk (Poland) bt N Mahuet (France) 5 and 4; S Gregory (Corhampton) by J Sainz (Spain) 5 and 4; R MacIntyre (Glencruitten) bt I Cantero (Spain) 2 and 1; P McBride (The Island) bt E Ferguson (Bearsden) 2 holes.
Semi-finals: Gregory bt Meronk 3 and 2; MacIntyre bt McBride at the 20th.
Final: Gregory v MacIntyre (8.30 am and 1 pm)
