Bob MacIntyre: I can’t really be in a better spot going into the weekend

Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre admits he may not be nice to himself on the course but believes he is in an ideal position heading into the weekend at The Open at Royal Birkdale.

The left-hander, who finished joint-third at last week’s Scottish Open, was delighted with his second-round 69, the highlight of which was an eagle at the par-five 17th.

Even a bogey at the last could not spoil the mood of the Scot, whose four-under total for the tournament left him in a share of seventh, four behind leader Lucas Herbert.

“I’ll be honest, I’m not nice to myself, that’s just the standard I set. When I make a mistake, it’s one of those ones like ‘We just switched off’. I felt like for a couple of holes we switched off,” he said.

“(But I) can’t really be in a better spot going into the weekend. It’s where I want to be, especially after last week with the game.”

England’s Matt Wallace, whose best Open finish is joint 40th, posted the clubhouse lead on four under after a round of 68.

“I played nice, started great. I knew conditions kind of similar to yesterday morning were going to play into our hands,” said the 36-year-old, who is bidding to become the first English winner since Sir Nick Faldo at Muirfield in 1992 – and first on English soil since Tony Jacklin in 1969 at Royal Lytham & St Annes.

“The amount of people saying ‘Go on, Matt’ and egging me on because you’ve got an Englishman at the top of the lead.”

The Fitzpatrick brothers suffered contrasting fortunes with Alex shooting a 67 to also move to four under and elder sibling Matt missing the cut after a second successive 72 dropped him to four over.

“I just played the golf that I was hoping that I would play out there,” said Alex, playing in only his second Open.

“I still feel like I left quite a few out there, which is obviously annoying, but I’m just happy to be here on the weekend.”

Matt felt he was just unfortunate, saying: “I’ve hit decent shots, gotten no luck and come away with four-over par. That’s the way links golf is.

“You need to have that rub of the green sometimes, and I didn’t have it this week.”