The Tour Championship is one of the pinnacles of the game for the vast majority of players on the PGA Tour.
However, one Ryder Cup player wasn’t even keen on teeing it up at East Lake before the Tour Championship actually began.
The change of format at the Tour Championship has been popular among most of the PGA Tour players.
There are no starting strokes at the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup season finale this year.
This year’s edition of the Tour Championship is the very definition of winner takes all.
That said, one top 10 player in the world really struggled with a lack of motivation to even play at East Lake on Thursday.
Robert MacIntyre admits he didn’t even want to play the Tour Championship
World number eight Robert MacIntyre produced a magnificent opening round of six-under par 64 at East Lake to finish the day in a tie for third.
After the disappointment he endured last week at the BMW Championship, his 64 represented a superb bounce back.
MacIntyre spoke to Sky Sports in the UK after his opening round at the Tour Championship on Thursday, and he made an extremely honest admission.
The 29-year-old Scot was asked whether he was still feeling the hurt from last week at Caves Valley.
He said: “Yeah, it’s in the back of the mind, but it’s not so much — I’ve always got fuel on the fire. Every time I peg it up — if I’m teeing it up off the first tee on Thursday, I’m all in. I’m all guns blazing. There has been a lot of disappointment over the last few days.
“I’ll be honest with you. It’s just been not wanting to peg it up here, to be honest with you. But the minute today I’ve woken up and I’m getting ready to play golf, it’s like, put that behind us for the week and let’s go to town on this place and give it our best shot.“
It’s lucky that MacIntyre chose to tee it up at East Lake, because now he has a chance to win the biggest prize of them all, financially at least.
Robert MacIntyre’s honesty is refreshing among sterile PGA Tour interviews
MacIntyre has a brilliant, and very natural, way of telling it how he sees it and that is wonderful to see.
The European Ryder Cup player broke the mould of the normal PGA Tour interview we, as fans, get served up every week with his comments during the BMW Championship.
MacIntyre delivered a really refreshing response when asked about the heckling aimed at him at Caves Valley.
“Yeah, I totally expected it. I totally expected to be in this situation today when I’m in this position. It’s going to be the exact same tomorrow.
“Yeah, I’ll give as good back as I get. Look, I thought I played great. There was obviously a couple of shouts. But no, there’s plenty of security there that are hearing it and seeing it, and yeah, I did see them talk to a few people. I don’t know if anyone was thrown out, but there was plenty of people to talk to.
“Yeah, he was just jeering. He was just shouting I missed it, he’s pushed it. Pushed it right in the middle of the hole, I guess.“
And then MacIntyre showed how his lack of media training is actually a really good thing with his comments after the opening round of the Tour Championship on Thursday.
That’s why we all love listening to him after he plays golf.
Receive exclusive golf news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
