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By Joy Chakravarty
With the incessant chatter of getting into the top-50 of the Official World Golf Ranking swirling around him, Robert MacIntyre has learned how to shut the “noise”.

After signing for a bogey-free four-under par 68 to move to nine-under, the 24-year-old Scotsman will play in the final group Saturday with leader Thomas Detry (-10).

“It’s been around for a long time now. It’s just noise and I am used to it now,” said the man from OBAN, a first-time European Tour winner at last year’s Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Showdown and a former MENA Tour champion.

“It’s a goal of mine, but it’s all taken care of by good golf. And what I’m doing just now is I’m playing good golf and starting to find a stride with the irons. If I continue
to do that, then that should hopefully take care of that.”

MacIntyre rose up to No. 66 in the OWGR towards the end of 2019 before losing his way following a niggling wrist injury that forced him out of the 2020 Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. He is now the highest-ranked Scotsman in the world at No. 52.

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Surely MacIntyre has reset his goals now that he is so close to the top-50?

“Top-50 is just a start. I want to get inside that, but the sky is the limit after that. I want to get inside the top-40 and then top-30 and eventually become a top-10 player. We all know what number you can try for once you are up there,” said the man who finished tied sixth at the 2019 Open Championship at Royal Portrush.

On Friday, even though it was a bogey-free round, MacIntyre said he did not play as well as he did in the first round.

“It wasn’t as pretty or as solid as yesterday’s round, if I’m being honest. But that’s the way golf is. You can’t have a 72-hole tournament where you hit it absolutely perfectly,” he added.

“Today, I felt I was out of rhythm early on. As a group itself, we just couldn’t get any momentum, which was difficult.

“But I hung in there and I putted great. I made a 12-foot putt for par on my second hole (the par-3 11th) after hitting a terrible iron shot off the tee. And that kind of gives you some confidence early on.

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“And I think that was the most pleasing part of the round. I was mentally strong on a day when I wasn’t playing my best golf. Putting is 80 per cent mental anyways.”

Asked what would be the key to carrying on the momentum of the first two rounds into the weekend, MacIntyre said: “I’m sticking to what I’ve been doing the last two days or the last week and a half really and just try and enjoy myself.

“Mick (Thomson, his caddie) is doing a great job of keeping me in check and keeping me from losing a bit of cool. So, just go and enjoy ourselves and see where we end up.”