The Open: Robert MacIntyre eyes PGA Tour card in America after impressing at Royal St George’s

A final-round 67 – which included a bogey six after he drove out of bounds on the 14th at Royal St George’s – lifted him to seven under and joint-eighth.

The qualifying points he gets from that mean it is a trip back Stateside to play the 3M Open in Minnesota rather than Cazoo Open supported by Gareth Bale at Celtic Manor in Wales.

“It’s been a good week. Obviously disappointed at the way I finished,” he said.

“I want to win one of these, I don’t turn up to not compete, we’re all trying to win.

“I feel I’ve got the game to win an Open, I’m yet to show it, but I’m young and I’ve got plenty time. There’s a lot I can learn.

“My face doesn’t show it yet, but once this week’s over I’ll be absolutely delighted with the result.

“(A top 10) in the States to try and chase down a PGA Tour card and then I don’t know what I do, whether I come home and go back out to Memphis (for the final World Golf Championship event of the year) or just stay out there.

“I’ve not got playing rights in the US yet so my base is Oban, it always will be. When the time’s right I’ll get a place out there, I’m not in a rush.”

Yorkshire duo Matthew Fitzpatrick and Danny Willett finished a bit further off the pace, the former finishing with a round of 70 to position joint 12th, with Willett ending with 72 to finish a shot further back.

Runner-up Jordan Spieth blamed a couple of “dumb mistakes” at the end of his third round for costing him the chance of winning a second Claret Jug.

The 2017 champion was 11 under when he walked onto the 17th tee on Saturday, the same score as eventual champion Collin Morikawa.

However, he bogeyed both – missing a par putt on the last from a couple of feet – and he left the course, after a 45-minute session on the putting green, furious with himself.

“The finish yesterday was about as upset as I’ve taken a finish of a round to the house,” he said after a round of 66 which matched that of Morikawa’s on the last day at Royal St George’s.

“I walked in and said ‘Is there something that I can break?’ I knew that was so important because I would have been in the final group.

“So I’m upset because I really felt like I played well enough to win and made a couple of really dumb mistakes that possibly if I had maybe played the week before, wouldn’t have made.

“Like just stepping in and missing a couple footer on 18 yesterday, not really thinking about it.

“I finished two-over on those holes, which what was frustrating as it would have been three of us (plus overnight leader Louis Oosthuizen) separated by at least three shots from the field and I would have been in the final group.

“So it was kind of a double whammy there.”