MacIntyre bracing for rough justice as Portrush rough promises “carnage”

Robert Macintyre of Scotland speaks to the media during a press conference prior to The 153rd Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club on July 15, 2025 in Portrush, Northern Ireland. (Photo by Oisin Keniry/R&A/R&A via Getty Images)

World number one Scottie Scheffler has picked Robert MacIntyre's brains when it comes to the secrets of links golf, but the in-form Scot has just one thing on his mind at Royal Portrush this week — discipline.

After coming close to winning his first major in last month's US Open at punishing Oakmont, where he was pipped by JJ Spaun's spectacular finish, the man from Oban knows what he has to do to lift the Claret Jug this week.

He grew up playing links golf and possesses the artistry required to triumph, as he showed when he finished tied for sixth at Royal Portrush on his Open debut six years ago.

The Dunluce links is a fearsome driving test, and MacIntyre knows "carnage" awaits those who try to do too much from the rough-strewn dunes that frame this Harry Colt masterpiece.

"For me, it's the purest method of the game that we've got, links golf," he said. "So many different ways to play it. It's not just 155 yards, pitch it 155 yards, keep it two yards right of the pin. It's not that. It's the unpredictability of what that's going to give us.

"You could tee off at 8:00 in the morning, beautiful sunshine, and then quarter past 8:00, there's a storm coming in, and you're playing and the wind's switched. It's just unpredictable with the weather, unpredictable with the bounces.

"I think that's what I love about it, that if you're out of position, I've got little rules that I keep.
"In links golf, there are certain things you cannot do, and there are certain things you have to do. I think it's the best way to play golf is links golf."

MacIntyre would not impart those secrets but he knows what works in links conditions and dealing with the rough is key to his thinking.

"I just think links golf, every hole there's an opportunity to make a bogey or make a disaster," he said.
"You've got the gorse bushes, you've got thick rough, wispy rough. I had a few last week (in the Scottish Open).

"I've walked in there, stupidly thinking, I'll get a seven-iron on that, hit it, goes over my shoulder, just wrapped the club.

"I just think every hole is a different test, but on links, if you hit the fairway off the tee, then you can manoeuvre the golf ball however you want -- draws, fades, wind direction, holding it into.

"If you're in the rough, it's carnage. It's not carnage as in Oakmont carnage, where I'm just getting a lob wedge on this. It's carnage that guys are going to think I could hit six, five-irons out with this rough, and it wraps it, and it goes sideways.

"It's just you've got to think about it sometimes. Be sure a club will go further because you've got control of it."
MacIntyre has loved Royal Portrush since he first played the course in the 2017 Home Internationals.

"It's how the golf course flows," he said. "It's not so much the holes. It's not nine holes one way, nine holes the other way. There is everything on this golf course visually. It's obviously enclosed by the dunes on either side.

"So you've got visuals off the tee. I played it when it was in the Home Internationals. Obviously, 17 and 18 have changed since then. As newly designed golf holes in the modern game, I think these are as good as it gets when they've been redesigned.

"So many golf courses try to trick it up. It's a par-5 and a par-4. Par-5, from tee shot hitting down, bunker on the right, heading back up the hill with a wind that's normally off the right.

"Then you got onto a little shelf, then you hit across the top of the hill. I just think the whole golf course is absolutely beautiful to the eye, but it also plays absolutely brilliantly.

"You've got holes that you've got a chance, and then you've got holes that you just try to hang on."