MacIntyre: 'I was almost crying walking off the range'

Bob MacIntyre's Ryder Cup debut could hardly have gone any better. Generally regarded going into the competition as the weakest of the 24 players, the Oban star contributed two and a half points from three outings and was everything that most of us had dreamt of.

The Scot is one of the most open players in the game and his recollection of that Friday morning in Rome was a real eye-opener to what really goes on. Partnered with Justin Rose in the afternoon fourballs against Max Homa and Wyndham Clark, MacIntyre was obviously nervous before his partner came to his aid.

"I was almost crying walking off the range. But when we had done all the TV cameras and all that, he comes over put his arm around me and goes, "Everything is going to be all right. This will be over in 2 1/2 minutes." He was brilliant. He's so experienced. He kept me calm. He trusted me. He believed in me. Even though I was terrible on the greens on Friday," MacIntyre explained.

The result of that opening tee shot was a bullet down the middle and the match climaxed with Rose holing a brilliant birdie putt on the last for an unlikely half. The following afternoon they beat Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas before MacIntyre saw off Clark in the singles.

"I think he spoke to Luke and said, "He's close." And I felt that tee-to-green I was solid. I was never out of a hole. I was never making a disaster. I was almost allowing him to be more aggressive because he was playing so good. Then Saturday, he just kept believing in me. I still had not made a putt for 12 holes, and I stood on 13, and he was trying to help me read the putt. I was like, "Justin, it's all right. I got this one." And once I holed that, he put his arm around me and was like, that's what it's all about. We fight together. He was incredible the whole week. He was someone that I knew I got along with, but I mean, I know him on a different level."

MacIntyre is now slowly planning for the future which might mean playing on the PGA Tour or it might not while the short-term future is all about making the top 50 in the world by Christmas to ensure a return to Augusta.

"I know what dreams I want to achieve. But a lot has got to change within my life to achieve the dreams. I don't know if I'm willing to change as much as I need to to achieve them but we'll sit down and have the chat, an open chat with the whole team, and see how we move forward.

"There's so much going on just now, I'm just trying to put it to the back of my mind. I know a lot of things that potentially could happen. I know inside what I need to do but it's a lot. I mean, I enjoy family time. I enjoy home life. I don't know whether that's the be-all end-all. I need to weigh it all out with the team around me."

MacIntyre's Sunday night came to a finish at 3am before catching a flight home where there were more celebrations.

"We went for a couple of drinks there when I got home on Monday night. It was kind of a closed environment. Declan, he shut his pub/restaurant, just shut it all down. It was just my friends and family. Close friends and family that were there just as a little celebration."