Robert MacIntyre was thrilled to play with his "idol" Phil Mickelson as the left-handed duo shared the fairways of Royal Troon in the final round of The 152nd Open Championship.
Mickelson is the most successful left-handed player of all-time, with six Major Championships to his name including the 2013 Open, while he was part of the epic battle that saw Henrik Stenson lift the Claret Jug at Troon eight years ago.
Now a PGA TOUR and Rolex Series winner, MacIntyre is writing his own chapter for lefties and despite having a week he was putting "in the bin" after finishing at nine over, he was delighted to tee it up with a man who has shaped his game.
"It was great," he said. "To get to play with an idol, someone that you've shaped your golf game around... if it wasn't watching my dad play golf, it was watching Phil Mickelson play golf.
"It was cool to walk the fairways with him as well and get chatting to him. It was just cool.
"Today was obviously a special day just to get to do that."
MacIntyre had no regrets about celebrating his Genesis Scottish Open win last week and while he admitted it had contributed to his Open week being "carnage from start to finish", the World Number 16 was already looking forward to the rest of 2024.
"I'm very good at relaxing when I get away from the golf course," he said. "I'm very good at keeping the clubs in the travel case when I've got my weeks off and enjoying time with friends and family.
Final round alongside my childhood hero in front of a home support 😍😍 @TheOpen @PhilMickelson
— Robert MacIntyre (@robert1lefty) July 20, 2024
"It's going to be no different over these next two weeks and then I'll go back out to the States, do a bit of practising and just go again and just keep pushing forward.
"I'll go play the final four in America, come back to Europe after that and play the end of the year in Europe.
"Top 20 in the world is really good. I've got ambitions in the game that I want to go further than 16th in the world.
"Playing in these tournaments is what you need to do and competing in them - 16th in the world is great but there's a long way to keep going."
