Scotsman Daily Bulletin, July 15

The Scotsman

Deputy Editor Alan Young is joined by Sport Editor Mark Atkinson to look back on a huge weekend of sporting action

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy

00:10Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our Sport Editor, Mark Atkinson, to look back

00:14on a huge weekend for sport. Hi Mark.

00:17Good morning.

00:18Let's have a look at the front page first, as ever. And no surprise which story we splash

00:26with the story which has caused shockwaves around the world and that's the attempted

00:31assassination of Donald Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday evening. Our headline

00:37there is around Mr Trump's defiance as he calls for unity in the wake of the attack

00:46and he is travelling to the Republican convention today as planned. We're keeping a very close

00:53eye on developments there. At the top of the page, however, is the reason that Mark

00:58is here. It's a huge weekend, as I mentioned, for sport. Obviously, we had the Euro 2024

01:05final heartbreak for England last night as Spain emerged 2-1 winners with a goal in the

01:12dying minutes. But also a huge Scottish sport story and that's where I'd like to start,

01:20Mark. Bob McIntyre winning the Scottish Open. Couldn't have happened at a better time, really,

01:27a few days before Troon.

01:29Yeah, yeah. Wonderful achievement for Bob McIntyre who has had a fantastic past 12 months

01:36in the golfing world as part of the Ryder Cup team that won last year and now on the

01:42PGA Tour he got his first title there and he came back to the Scottish Open venue where

01:46he so painfully lost last year to Rory McIlroy and defeated Adam Scott by one shot, playing

01:53three excellent holes towards the end. Look, we've got a real superstar on our hands here

01:59in terms of Bob McIntyre. People didn't realise that before, they should realise that now.

02:05He was desperate to win this title, home soil, right the wrongs of last year when he was

02:11so agonisingly defeated and he promised to party hard. I can tell you one thing, Bob

02:15McIntyre knows how to celebrate. I can't imagine he is the most sober man in East Lothian

02:21this morning having woken up with the trophy in his hands. And yeah, you'd think that Bob

02:26McIntyre is going to be a candidate for the Open. It's actually very rare that the winner

02:30of the Scottish Open does well at the Open because it's hard in golf to have two successful

02:36weeks back to back. If it's not this time, and it could be this time, but if it's not

02:41this time, this guy has got real potential to win a major. Speaking to Martin Dempster,

02:46our golf correspondent last night, he is utterly convinced that Bob McIntyre will have a major

02:51in his hands sooner rather than later. An extraordinary story, extraordinary golfer,

02:56really exciting to watch his progress.

02:59Indeed, and we've obviously done a lot of pieces with Bob McIntyre over the years. I

03:07think what really strikes you is how down to earth he is as well for being, say, a superstar.

03:14Absolutely. He comes from really good stock, Bob McIntyre, from Oban. His family are really

03:21grounded individuals. They brought him up brilliantly. He represents them with pride.

03:27He's a real home bird. He'd admit that himself. He's gone over to Florida to try and make

03:33an impression on the PGA Tour, and I think he found it very difficult. Martin Dempster

03:37went over to see Bob earlier this year, and Bob admitted that he was finding the acclimatisation

03:44in the States really difficult. He announced before the Scottish Open that his plan long

03:48term is to commute from Oban to the PGA World Tour, because essentially he can just fly

03:53over for the tournaments. He really enjoys his home comforts, loves shinty, loves being

04:00around his friends, and I think that's when we see the best of Bob, actually, when he's

04:04in that comfort zone, that place of happiness for him. What I like about him is he's so

04:09refreshingly honest about where he is on a personal and professional level. The sky could

04:15be the limit for him. Golf is very competitive. We have a number of extremely good golfers

04:19right now in the world. The reason why he's not number one or anything like that is because

04:25there are so many good players out there right now, but if you ask anybody who watches golf

04:29a lot at the moment, Bob McIntyre is one of their top players right now. It's a real

04:34privilege to call him a Scot. He's going to be a superstar if he's not one already.

04:40Fantastic. So, a great result yesterday, which we can all enjoy and look ahead to the Open,

04:47and not such a great result, let's face it, for England in the Euros final. It's the same

04:53old story, really. Yes, England's second best last night in almost every department.

05:01Gareth Southgate and the players and the media have all accepted that in England. They came

05:07up against a very good team in Spain, a team that had performed extremely well right from

05:11their first match when they beat Croatia 3-0. In that game, we all realised that Spain were

05:17one of the favourites to win it. England had their moments last night. I felt it won all.

05:21They maybe could have pushed on. They had speed on the ropes. But like England throughout this

05:26tournament, they never really looked dangerous for a whole match. And there's a lot of questioning

05:32now about what happens next with England. They have such a strong talent pool, especially in

05:37the final third of the pitch, so many good attacking players. But for whatever reason,

05:41whether it's tactical, whether it's just the way the players play, the fatigue, the pressure,

05:45they've not brought it to the table in this tournament. And had they won it, they would

05:48have deserved it, of course. But I think over the piece, we're all fairly unanimous that the

05:54Spanish were the best team in the tournament. And of course, the last team to beat them

05:58competitively is Scotland, believe it or not. They've gone a bit of a tear since then. But

06:04that's a consolation to Scotland after our neat performances at the Euros. But a great tournament.

06:08I really enjoyed it and we have a very fitting winner.

06:12I'm taking from what you've just said, Mark, that Scotland are the best team in Europe

06:16and we'll just leave it at that.

06:18Yes, I don't think you can have too many complaints. Let's hope we don't bump into

06:23Spain again any time soon because they would probably write that wrong off of Glasgow last year.

06:30Absolutely. Thanks very much for that, Mark. Please keep an eye on scottsman.com throughout

06:33the day for all the very latest news and support. If you can, do subscribe and you can read and

06:38watch everything we do. And if you're out and about today, as ever, please do pick up a copy

06:43of the paper from me and from Mark. Bye for now.

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