Some seven hours after ‘Captain America’ Patrick Reed had been picked by Tiger Woods for next month’s Presidents Cup and the Texan was singing the praise of King Scot Bob MacIntyre.
Reed is back in the USA Team good books after his controversial post 2018 Ryder Cup ‘blindsided’ remarks directed at Woods when overlooked by losing France captain Jim Furyk in favour of Woods, who had lost two earlier Versailles matches.
Reed and MacIntyre were grouped for the opening two Turkish Airlines Open rounds but it was the rookie Scot upstaging his American rival in posting a blistering second day nine-under par 63 to move to 10-under par on the Montgomerie Maxx course.
The effort is the 23-year old’s equal-lowest score in 96 rounds in his rookie year and matching a final round 63 in the Kenya Open.
Reed was two shots back in signing for a 65 for an eight-under total and didn’t have a bad word about the Oban lefty.
Reed said: “Robert played really well. It was awesome to see.
“He’s a great young fellow and hits the ball an absolute mile. He hits it high and it goes forever. With his game, he can definitely shorten-up golf courses very easy.
“Thursday was a struggle for us in each shooting 71 and to see him flip the switch today, especially on that back nine, shoot 29, was special.
“He has a great demeanour and especially he was saying this is his first full year on Tour.
“There are not too many lefties out here. You have Phil (Mickleson) and Mike Weir and apart from them, Robert is probably the only other lefty I have know.
“The great thing Robert is young. He clearly has a big career ahead of him though he also has a lot of years in front of him, so we will have to wait and see but in playing alongside him this week, he was very impressive.”
MacIntyre’s effort though is projected to see him drop two places on the Race to Dubai with Austria’s Matthas Schwab posting a 67 to move one shot clear of the field at 12-under par.
Both Schwab and England’s Danny Willett (66), who shares second place on 11-under par, are both projected to jump the young Scot on the Race to Dubai standings.
MacIntyre, and starting on 10, needed just 23 putts and in the process one-putted 11 holes, including holing a 24-footer at the 16th or his seventh while capped a run of three birdies in succession from the first to third, or his 10th to 12th holes, by chipping-in.
He hit a ‘steam train’ 30-footer for birdie at the par-3 fifth or his 14th and at the ninth MacIntyre landed a 9-iron to just five-feet for the ninth birdie of the day.
MacIntyre said: “Early on the greens were absolutely brilliant and I managed to get a few putts going in. I’m a big confidence player when the putter gets going and on the back nine the hole felt like a bucket.
“The putts I holed out there weren’t too long, but I got lucky on the par-3 fifth or my 14th as the ball was going like a steam train but it hit the back of the hole and went in.
“It was a good way to finish and, overall, I felt I played brilliant. I actually missed two good chances inside 12 feet, so it could have been really daft.
“So, I’ve had probably produced my best-ever round of golf out there today, so I can’t complain.”
And while MacIntyre managed to upstage Reed, and a winner of the Masters and six other PGA Tour titles, the young Scot clearly enjoyed the visiting Texan’s company
MacIntyre said: “It’s been brilliant playing alongside Patrick. I first met him out in Saudi so I knew him to say hello to.
“He’s a good guy and a great golfer. Once I get into the mind frame of thinking that they are here for the same reason as I am, then I just free flow.
“I also try to learn from these guys and I do. I go away from a round like this and speak to my coach and see what Patrick and Nacho (Elvira) are doing better than me.
“I’ll know myself what they doing but it’s good to have my coach’s eyes there to confirm what I’m thinking.”
MacIntyre revealed he had ‘teased’ Reed during Thursday’s round if Woods had phoned ahead of the formal announcement of the Royal Melbourne ‘wildcard’ picks.
The Scot said: “I actually teased him a little bit on Thursday and tried to get it out of him.
“I was saying ‘what are you plans the next wee while?’ and he was saying ‘maybe the Presidents Cup and this and that’.
“So, we were walking down the first hole today and I looked at him and said ‘you knew, didn’t you?’ It was a good laugh.”
Scott Jamieson rallied to birdie three of his last four holes in a 68 to just one shot behind MacIntyre sharing 11th place on nine-under par.
