As evidenced by two PGA Tour title triumphs, a hat-trick of wins on the DP World Tour, a Ryder Cup appearance and a top-15 spot in the world rankings, Bob MacIntyre hasn’t made many bad decisions in his professional career. As also illustrated by his golf bag for a title defence this week in the Genesis Scottish Open in East Lothian sporting the My Name'5 Doddie tartan in his bid to raise awareness of MND, the Oban man also has a knack of getting things right with his calls off the course. MacIntrye is human, though, and, speaking in his press conference at The Renaissance Club, the 28-year-old admitted that he had made one rash move on his journey from the DP World Tour Rookie of the Year in 2019 to a position where he is arguably now Scotland’s biggest sporting star. “That was when I was changing coach,” he said, referring to when he decided just over two years ago to split with Englishman Simon Shanks and start working again with fellow Scot David Burns before quickly reversing that decision and getting back with Shanks, who also works with Jordan Smith. “I remember Simon saying, ‘I think you're firing the wrong man’,” added MacIntyre. “The phone line was breaking up while we were speaking and he thought I didn't hear it. And I phoned him two weeks later with my tail between my legs, saying, ‘Simon, you're right. Can I come back?’ And here we are still working together. That was a rash decision.” With all due respect to Burns, it is difficult to argue that it wasn’t the right one and no event illustrates the progress MacIntyre has made over the last two years better than his home Open, having been pipped by Rory McIlroy’s brilliant birdie-birdie finish two years ago before coming close to exploding with delight as he rolled in a 23-foot birdie putt on the final green 12 months ago to become the first Scot to land the title since Colin Montgomerie in 1999. “With me saying how much I wanted to win this tournament, I think the pressure is off on that side it,” admitted the left-hander of being back on the East Lothian coast trying to get himself in the mix again in the $9 million Rolex Series event. “But the expectation - not from me or people within my team but from outside, the fans - is through the roof. I can't control that. I've just got to go out there on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and prepare as well as I can. I feel I've done that this week, and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, we give it our best shot. Hopefully come Sunday on the back nine, we just have to kind of flip the coin or roll the dice, however you want to say it, and if it falls your way, perfect, like it did last year.” History is against the Scot as no player has managed to successfully defend this crown in the previous 43 editions, but he’s excited to give it a go when he starts out in Thursday’s opening round with the world No 1, Scottie Scheffler, and former Masters champion Adam Scott in one of the marquee groups. “It would be unbelievable,” admitted MacIntyre in reply to being asked what back-to-back wins on Scottish soil would mean to him. “I want to keep this trophy every year until I stop playing. I pitch up here and I want to win. It's the Scottish Open. I hope if I don't win it, a Scottish player wins it. It's just a special, special golf tournament with an unbelievable field.” As part of his preparation for both this event and also next week’s 153rd Open at Royal Portrush, MacIntyre paid a visit last week to Machrihanish, where he enjoyed meeting up with Belle Robertson, who was described by her fellow Argyll & Bute resident as a “legend” and rightly so. As for why he was there, MacIntyre said: “I remember going to Troon (ahead of the last year’s Open) a couple of days before coming here last year and it was amazing how much the golf ball was moving in a 20-mile-an-hour wind. So I went to Machrihanish to hit the same shots that you normally hit and watch how much this thing is going to move. “It was just to get that feel, that sea air, the heavy wind, hitting the golf ball again, and just getting your eye seeing what you used to see. Whereas when I'm playing in America, I hit the ball up there, land it, normally on the number, it stops. It's just a completely different style of golf. But, since I've played more on the PGA Tour, when I come back here and play links golf, I enjoy it way more than I used to because it used to just be the norm.” In addition to his bag, MacIntyre also did his bit to raise awareness of MND by taking part in what he described as a “sad occasion” as he joined the family of Scott Stewart, who died from the illness last December after being the honorary starter for the pro-am earlier in the year, for the opening of a grandstand at the ninth green in his memory. “I've also got a close family friend who has now got it,” reported MacIntyre of the condition that Doddie Weir, the former Scotland and British Lions rugby player, battled for a lengthy spell before he passed away in 2022. “It's just trying to battle a hellish disease. And I keep saying it; I'm just a small, small part of that. I try my best to raise as much money, awareness, and everything that we can to try and battle this disease.”