MacIntyre and McIlroy duke it out again at Scottish Open as tee times revealed for the Renaissance

Bob MacIntyre will go head-to-head again with Rory McIlroy for the opening two days of the Genesis Scottish Open.

The Scottish star was pipped at the post 12 months ago by his European Ryder Cup colleague in a dramatic last-day shootout at The Renaissance. MacIntyre and McIlroy are joined by another Rome hero Viktor Hovland for the opening two days going out as a threeball on day-one at 8.28am and 1.43pm on Friday.

Xander Schauffele, who won the title two years ago, has been paired alongside Wyndham Clark and Tommy Fleetwood. Scotland has a total of eight competitors aiming to become the first home winner since Colin Montgomerie in 1999 at Loch Lomond. David Law is the first Scot on the first tee on the opening day at 7.44am, but Connor Syme starts earlier from the 10th at 7.11am. Scott Jamieson starts on the first at 12.37pm before Ewen Ferguson and Calum Hill at 1.54pm and 2.05pm. Richie Ramsay goes from the 10th at 12.48pm and Grant Forrest at 1.43pm.

Meanwhile, Xander reckons shock choice Keegan Bradley needs to ditch the dinners to stop America being choked by Europe. Schauffele is back for another crack at the Renaissance title. He’s also looking to tune up for The Open with a Major already under his belt this term having won the PGA Championship. But, despite the massive fortnight ahead, American attention was centred on the Ryder Cup skipper choice for next year at Bethpage.

Schauffele admitted Bradley’s appointment was “surprising” due to age, but hopes that can bring changes which he says are needed after Rome. He said: “I remember getting throttled, that’s about it. Getting throttled is never fun. I feel like Keegan would understand sort of when we need to get up, when to practise, when you need to do this and, hopefully, dodge anything you don’t have to do and maybe that will help us. There’s so many things I don’t want to do. Taking a bunch of photos all dressed up. I would be the first guy that I need to flee quickly. Even like team dinners or things of that nature, we can have them sort of quick and inside versus having to go out, dress up and all those things. I think there’s two or three dinners that we have to go to that are kind of mandatory-ish, and I think if we cut it down to one or two versus three that would be a really big deal.

“I don’t dress up and go out to dinner. I play 24 events and I don’t think I dress up and go to one dinner in all those 24 events. Plus my wife, she’s amazing, maybe for an anniversary or something like that. She knows when I’m here, it’s to keep my head down and compete and that’s what I try to do.

“Just take everything off your plate. Player pictures and certain mandatory things that you have to do. But, in terms of sort of the nicknacky stuff, just try and take away as much as possible for the player. When you get to the team things, it’s the same for both teams, don’t get me wrong, but a good captain will try and cut back that stuff as much as possible and make the week as easier as possible. Along with the rest of the US side, we’re nitpicking. When you lose that many Cups overseas, you definitely start to get in your own head, you look in the mirror and start going, what’s wrong here?

“At the end of the day us players didn’t play well. I’m a glass-half-full guy. And I think him playing and knowing sort of the trends on tour, you start to see a lot more recovery centres here. You start to see a lot of things of that nature of how we practise and stuff.

“I think the most important thing to take away from what I said here is that we’re going to have to prepare differently, that’s maybe heading over earlier as a team together. Not three months earlier or one month earlier. Just a week early or five days earlier, whatever we can agree to. I think that will make a big difference.”