Robert MacIntyre taught me 10 lessons in 30 minutes. Here
Earlier this year the world’s best Scotsman, best lefty and best-golfer-who-moonlights-as-a-shinty-player joined me for a practice match to run through his warmup routine. He revealed a thing or two about how he sees the world.
Here’s what I learned from it Robert MacIntyre on the latest episode of Warming Up.
Watch below, or read on. . . or better yet, do both!
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1. The gym is no longer his enemy
“When I first came out I was against everything,” MacIntyre said as he began his session. “I was like, I don’t do that. I’m small enough. But I’ve had a few injuries, lower back, like a lot of golfers, and I think that comes from, one, not being strong enough to handle the speed and travel, and two, when I get to the range I can stick it with the driver, sometimes I do that when I come home from the ring, I’m not injured – and I warm up.”
MacIntyre says he and his team noticed that his scoring rate was going up in the morning rounds and realized that was because part of his body was struggling to wake up. They pulled that off with a very active pre-cycle routine.
“The warmth was important,” he added hesitantly.
I think that’s a decent tag line for the show.
2. “You have a wedge chart”
MacIntyre starts with his 60-degree and varies his specific wedge but aims for the same goal – to dial in a certain emotion.
“I have a chart of how far I’m reaching my limits,” he says.
What does 9 o’clock mean? MacIntyre brings his lead arm back until it’s parallel to the ground — like the hand hitting nine on a clock — “and it’s full speed ahead.”
3. You like to use the simulator “reset”
MacIntyre’s home base is Scotland – more on that in a minute – but that doesn’t mean he’s grinding down all the windy linksland conditions. Instead, he prefers the calmness of an impersonator when he is at home.
“My plan is slow, backwards [a] all week I’m playing in the air,” MacIntyre said. “I know the trend, I’m going to go ahead, I’m going to trigger it, so I feel like the simulator is ready to reset, no wind no distractions, flat ground and I can just work on the techniques.”
4. Anyway, lowering his wedges is second nature
You can take Bob out of the Scottish spirit but you can’t take the Scottish spirit out of Bob, or something like that.
“I grew up in the air, so it’s easy,” MacIntyre said of keeping his wedges low in the air. “Open up [my stance] slowly. Your body will naturally open up. The ball bounces back [in my stance] then I just turn it around, drive through it.
“The thing I don’t have a problem with is hitting the ground.”
Interestingly, MacIntyre says that the two things are related; the more time he spends in the air the more he leans forward and the ball goes back his way – hence the need for a reset.
5. You need a different routine than Tiger Woods
When Tiger Woods reached his peak he moved to Isleworth, a club in Orlando, and the rest was history. About MacIntyre?
“I remember the first year I was here on the PGA Tour, I was here in Orlando, I was practicing in Isleworth, but I was almost too strong, I was going to practice, I was going to practice, and then it was like, my game got worse. [In the offseason] it’s hard to be motivated because after the Ryder Cup and the race to Dubai, you’re trying to slow down.”
This has been a big part of MacIntyre’s story over the past few years: figuring out what energizes him, what drains him, what helps him score better.
“I find when I’m not at home, I like to spend time with family and friends and I don’t touch the teams too much unless it’s Mike. [his caddie] he texts me and says, ok, match in the simulation, and I join and play,” he said.
As for Woods’ process?
He says: “I’m not built the same way as Ngwe. “But look, everyone does it differently. I mean, look at Alex Noren. If I went to spend the day with Alex, my hands would be busy the next day … for me, the biggest change in the last two years has been the mental side, and the happier I am off the golf course, the more I can bring that to the golf course. So, yes. It’s very simple.”
6. His shooting style? It depends on the club
What shooting style does MacIntyre prefer? It changes the whole bag.
“I like to favor short clubs,” he says, holding a 9-iron. “And then it’s reduced a lot with the long irons.”
As for his wood?
“I’m a driver neutral. I don’t like to shape the driver, as my stock gun may be neutral to allow me to direct it.”
7. In the grade “you get zero”
Although MacIntyre has his preferred shooting position (see above), during his pre-round range session he usually tries to hit it straight.
“For me, it’s all about getting zero, getting neutral on the range, and then when I go out and play, I just go and play and not think about anything,” said MacIntyre. “But when I think about it, I try to get the club in the right place … when I warm up I try to hit everything straight so that when I walk into the golf course I know exactly, if that’s straight. [pointing to ball position]if I want to write it, the ball goes back [in my stance]if I want to fade, the ball goes up.
“I try to keep it as simple as possible.”
8. When he bends the ball, he thinks of one thing…
…where it will end.
“I’m not a big fan of skill … I’ve played golf long enough now, I know that for a fade the club has to go this way,” MacIntyre said, swinging the tee to the right. “I don’t worry about it fading, Mike will keep saying where he wants me to finish, he never tells me where to start.”
“Because I don’t even know where this thing will start, as long as I get in shape and hit the distance.”
9. You look at the three numbers on the launcher
“The approach, the angle of the face, the face to face. Those are my test areas,” MacIntyre said.
“Launch” measures how the clubhead moves relative to the target line.
“Face angle” measures the direction in which the face is pointing at impact, and if it is relative to the target line.
And face to face measures the relationship between the two numbers above, which will tell you about the bend, the sidespin, the flight of the ball.
So is MacIntyre more of an artist or a scientist?
“I can say that I’m more of an artist, but I don’t shy away from the science side,” he said. “I like to make sure that everything is ready, make sure that the clubs are ready, make sure that… there’s a lot more that will go into it now that it’s not just about getting high, playing golf.”
10. “Life goes on”
It emerged a few years ago that MacIntyre was continuing to play other, flashier games, which he described as “field hockey without rules.” This meant I would understand field hockey and its rules, which I didn’t, but I got the general idea of the lawlessness involved. So why does he continue to play other sports when his livelihood depends on his physical health?
“Life goes on,” he said with a laugh. “As this is my job, playing other sports is something I enjoy doing.
“I remember being asked in an interview at Dunhill a few years ago, when it first came out, when people saw, ‘you’re still playing glitter, what are you doing?’
“But I remember the reporter, I know this guy well, I remember his face, who said, ‘why are you playing shinty,’ and I didn’t answer him, I asked him a question, I went, ‘well, let me ask you a question, what do you do in your spare time?’
“He goes, ‘I’m playing golf.’ I said, ‘Sure. Well, my job is to play golf, so if I have two weeks off, what do I do with my time off? I have to do something.’
“At that time, I wasn’t in the gym. I didn’t want to do things. So I was like, ‘Well, I play shinty in my free time, or I go do other sports, whether it’s squash, tennis, indoor soccer. Live my life. I don’t worry too much about the results. We’ll worry about that if we have to.”
That is the Tao of MacIntyre: Live my life. Don’t worry about the results. We worry about that if we have to.
It’s not a bad way to do it.
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