Bob MacIntyre happy with first round at St Andrews despite coming unstuck at hole 13

Happy with a two-under par finish in his first St Andrews Open, Robert MacIntyre knows he will have to figure out the best way to tackle Hole 13 if he is to improve on that tally and chase down early leader Cameron Young.

The goosebumps he felt as he took to the Old Course for a dream-come-true moment prevented him from taking risks as he tried to adapt to the wind and glassy putting greens but he is hoping to solve the puzzle ahead of Friday’s round.

“I've been working on a couple of shots but it's hard to trust them under pressure. As much as it's the first round…there's a lot of pressure on you. There's so much going on. You just gotta keep it in play.”

Round the Old Course in 72, the Scot bogeyed the sixth and the 17th holes but the biggest blip was at the 13th, where he took two extra shots.

“If someone had given me two-under par before I had started I would have taken it for sure,” he said after he finished on a high, with a birdie on 18. “The obvious is a few mistakes, a couple of three-putts. Overall, not a bad start.

“I feel like I committed to the game plan very well. There's only one hole we really don't have a plan on, and that's 13. And the result shows you.”

Left-handed, he acknowledged that the back nine was trickier for him than his right-handed counterparts.

“To create an angle to that pin you've got to hit it left, but the wind's going. It's an absolute nightmare of a hole. But I'll take the positives.”

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