Robert MacIntyre happy to open with 'good round of golf' at Scottish Open

Defending champion Robert MacIntyre was satisfied to have a positive first round at the Scottish Open and believes he coped well enough with “a proper test of golf”.

MacIntyre finished two under with a 68, one shot adrif of playing partner and world number one Scottie Scheffler.

After a couple of tough moments, including bogeys at the fourth and 13th, the Scot declared himself happy with his day’s work.

“It was a good round of golf,” MacIntyre said.

“A bit of a poor start, to be honest with you. I wasn’t hoping for that.

“But to walk off of there two under par, sneaking that birdie on eight, missing that birdie on nine… overall a good day.”

With three players now in the clubhouse on six under, MacIntyre is a little adrift of the leaders but he feels he’s in a decent position when a bad day on what he says is a challenging course could have seriously damaged hopes.

“It’s a start,” he said. “You can’t win it on the first day but you can certainly play yourself out of it.

“I feel like that round today has played myself in it.

“This is probably the best condition this course has been in. It’s the firmest and fastest it’s been.

“When you miss the fairway, then it is carnage. It’s because it’s firm and fast and it makes it play proper links-y.

“It’s a proper test of golf and the fans always turn out for it.”