There is a lot to be found in Robert Macintyre, proud son of Oban, Scotland: carrots in the working class; hardworking and modest; Big Proclaimers Guy. Nothing should say that Bobby Mac is not hot if things don’t go away. He may look gentle and usually he is, but furious, he will tell you, is also in his DNA.
“I will hit the bag. I will say some hard things, but that’s what gets me going,” he said last month prior to the 153rd Open Championship. “If I walk around and I am all happy, I have just made a double bogey or clap people, thank you very much, I am not. I have to destroy something. I want to tear a glove. I do something to get that anger out. It is better than for me. Some people are better to hold, but for me it is just to let it go and then not the next one.
Due to three rounds at the BMW championship, Macintyre had little reason to sulk or stew, except that he occasionally heard a Jere from hostile American fans. He had opened the event in Caves Valley in Maryland with a dazzling eight-under 62. In the second and third round he cooled with a 64 and 68 respectively, but no one could keep track of the smoothly cracking scotsman. At 16 under 54 holes, Macintyre was in charge with four.
That was the good news. The Bad News: Macintyre’s play partner In the last combination of Sunday was World (Galaxy?) Nr. 1 Scottie Scheffler, who chews four-shot leads such as PAC-Man Crushes Power Pellets. Discouraged? Macintyre did not seem to be. Or at least he said he wasn’t. “I really expected to go outside, go downstairs and the way I have the last few days,” he said Sunday evening.
Instead, Macintyre approached what he characterized as ‘an absolutely horrible start’, with Flier -Groals and a mud ball on the first two holes that led to a few Bogeys. After another bogey on the 5th, Macintyre’s lead was already halved. He settled with seven straight pars, but against Scheffler Pars is rarely enough. Macintyre’s inability to control his distances did not help things.
“My golf ball went miles today,” he said. “I don’t know why. I have to work that out. But when I got the game back in a bit of a shape, I went over the back of the par-3s. I feel that I took good photos and I went for miles.”
Macintyre also heard from the Pro-Scheffler Galleries, as he had been on Saturday. While Macintyre rose the 12th hole in the final round, a fan shouted: “You are not ready!”
By 15, Macintyre was completely handed over to Scheffler, but deeply dug to try to stay in a good mental space.
“Until that moment I wasn’t nice to myself,” he said. “Scottie had missed a putt, and then I had something like that, if you got a shot back with 15 at the start of the week, you would have taken it? Hundred percent I would have taken it. Yes, I was in charge, but it doesn’t matter to the last putt on the 18th Green and the 72nd hole. I still had a chance.”
But then Birdied 15 and two holes later, on the par-3 17th, the nail put in Macintyre’s box when he remembers one of the biggest chip shots you will ever see. Macintyre had also been greensside at the US Open in Oakmont earlier this summer when JJ Spaun emptied a 64-footer to win the title. Certainly, no other player has been defeated in such a short period of two of such prestigious tournaments by two of such an unlikely, soul -reinforced shots. When Scheffler’s chip dropped at the age of 17, you may have half an expected Macintyre to turn green and to bust the seams of his polo.
Macintyre not. He kept his cool. For the time being. After signing a disappointing 73, Macintryre said the obvious of Scheffler:
“He is the better player on the day,” before he adds: “I’m just really pissed off now.”
A reporter asked Macintryre if he noticed specific improvements he felt like he had to apply.
“No idea right now,” said Macintryre. “At the moment I want to destroy my golf clubs to be honest.”
Don’t worry, it is all part of the Bobby Mac process.
Better than in.
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