Robert MacIntyre vividly remembers watching the final match of the 2013 Wimbledon Championships, living and dying with every single shot. Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, the latter of whom MacIntyre called a Scottish ‘Sporting Idol,’ rifled back and forth, entertaining the world on the famous Centre Court grass.
But unlike the 2012 Wimbledon Championships, when he lost to Roger Federer, Murray beat Djokovic, knocking off the top player in the world who currently has a record 24 major titles.
So when Murray won in the third set, thus becoming the first Briton to win Wimbledon since 1936 and end a 77-year drought, MacIntyre and his father celebrated gleefully. Perhaps they did not celebrate as much as they did after this year’s RBC Canadian Open—and nothing touches the extravaganza they had after his Genesis Scottish Open victory—but the MacIntyre’s felt a great sense of national pride, and rightfully so. A Scotsman had achieved international glory, doing something that had not been done since before World War II.
Now, eleven years after that incredible triumph, MacIntyre played with Murray in the Wednesday Pro-Am before this week’s BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth, which is only 23 miles west of Wimbledon.
The two Scottish stars talked all day. MacIntyre picked Murray’s brain about competitiveness, desires, and his three major championship conquests—something MacIntyre hopes to win someday, too.
“Obviously, the mechanics are completely different,” MacIntyre said.
“But we are individual. We’ve got our own teams. It’s as close as we are going to get to the game of golf.”
Indeed, tennis and golf share plenty of similarities. Both sports have four major championships that rank above all else; both are individual sports and involve hitting a ball with a club or a racquet. Both also produce plenty of nerves.
“I was pretty nervous,” Murray admitted.
“I couldn’t really feel my arms and legs. I didn’t really hit any balls on the range beforehand. Yeah, I was feeling it. But it got better. It got better as the round went on.”
Murray, who carries a 7-handicap, hopes to become a scratch player eventually. But now that he is retired from professional tennis, that goal has suddenly become more attainable. He has more time to practice now, especially on those shots between 50 and 80 yards that he calls “really difficult.”
“A couple of years, probably,” Murray said when asked how long it would take him to carry a zero handicap index.
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“I’m getting to practice a lot more than the average person. I played a bit when I was younger, and if I can get the right lessons and practice the right things, then yeah, I’ve got a chance of doing that, I think, in a couple of years. Will you know the lessons have made a huge difference? That’s been the most important thing for me. I used to go down to the range and hit lots of balls, and I could hit a few good ones. But it doesn’t matter how many balls you hit on the range if you have a fundamental flaw in your swing or what you’re doing. So getting lessons and practicing those things is helping.”
Although Murray did not admit it, he learned a great deal from watching MacIntyre navigate Wentworth. Anyone who watches a player of that caliber does.
Funny enough, like MacIntyre at the Canadian Open, Murray tabbed his father to loop for him on Wednesday. But the elder Murray was so enamored with MacIntyre’s game that he forgot to give his son his club on multiple occasions. Murray then said that his father would likely get “the sack” after his performance, a stark departure from what the MacIntyres experienced in early June.
Nevertheless, the respect these two Scotsmen have for each other is extraordinary, something that should make all of Scotland proud.
“If I achieve half of what he achieved in his sport, then I’ll have overachieved, to be honest with you,” MacIntyre said of Murray.”
“When a Scottish person does so well, the whole of Scotland gets behind them. I’m no different. When he was winning Wimbledon, I watched every shot. I’d love to have half the career that he had in my sport. But there is so much work that goes into it.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.
