NORTH BERWICK, Scotland — The 16th green at the Renaissance Club was so low that no one could see the golfer standing on the sloping fairway just off the Firth of Forth, taking five minutes to hit a ball. They knew nothing about metal spikes or hidden sprinkler heads. To them, Robert MacIntyre was all but out of the Scottish Open, two shots behind Adam Scott with three holes to go. The dream of a Scot winning a national open would have to wait another year. But they still stood around the green, waiting patiently, clinging to a combination of courtesy and hope.
So chaos ensued as a ball appeared out of a dark, cloudy sky and landed on the slope of the par 5 green.
“Is that guy Bob?” asked one fan.
“Rice?” someone else shouted.
Scot Ross Gray was the first volunteer to find the tee shot on the dune grass. The ball had no chance. He walked to the green to prepare for his next shot. When he saw the ball bounce and slowly roll up, up, within six feet of the pin, even Gray said, “That’s his fourth, isn’t it?” But one by one, the realization that it was MacIntyre spread like a wave through the semicircle of fans until a disproportionate cheer erupted along the east coast of Scotland.
“Bobby! Bobby! Bobby!” they shouted as McIntyre finally appeared, raised his hand and started down the hill.
So Bob from Oban took the lead with an eagle on the 16th hole. From that moment on, there was only one way this could end. Bob McIntyre had to win the National Open. Thirty minutes later, he was screaming so loudly that he almost lost his voice.
“I was raised to fight for everything,” McIntyre said. “I just fought for it.”
Dougie McIntyre didn’t drive down from Oban until late Friday night. “My dad is a negative person,” McIntyre joked. The head greenkeeper at Glencruton Golf Club was so sure his son could make the cut that he gave up driving all the way from the west coast of Scotland. Dougie, who caddied for his son at the Canadian Open last month, didn’t feel comfortable until he was near the 15th hole in the second round.
Dougie was a proud but shy man, a brilliant shin-tee player and golfer who never had the chance to pursue his dream. He and his wife Carol raised their family just off the 12th tee at Glencruitten, looking up the very same hill and fairway where Macintyre eagle-ed on Sunday. They had four children, and many more foster children, including a boy who has been watching them for the past six or seven years. And Dougie passed on his love of the game to his children.
Great Scott!!! 🏴
@Robert1Lefty Win @ScottishOpen A cheer echoed across Scotland! pic.twitter.com/Fe20zt6lcv— PGA Tour (@PGATOUR) July 14, 2024
Maybe, just maybe, they could chase that dream more than he could. Bob was a special talent, the kind that the members knew was different when he beat adults and recorded his first ace at the age of 12. But Dougie and Carol couldn’t afford to send Bob around England to play in the numerous junior tournaments like most of his peers.
Sometimes club members and mentors helped financially. Macintyre’s sisters were accomplished horsemen, and the family owned horses for them to compete on. They had to sell their horse Molly to earn enough money to send Bob to the few tournaments he could attend.
He was never a sexy young prospect. He didn’t get the hype from his amateur wins or his college performances. He slowly rose through the ranks, and even when he was automatically selected for the 2023 Ryder Cup, he was met with skepticism.
“Your face doesn’t fit. You’re not a centered person,” McIntyre said. “And I just have to keep trying. The most important thing for me is to never give up. A lot of people might say, ‘He’s lacking this, he’s lacking that,’ but I have the strength to fight, and that’s all I need to do.”
But there was MacIntyre, standing on the 18th tee, with a chance to win the Scottish Open. Unlike last year – MacIntyre birdied the last hole, but Rory McIlroy snatched it from his hands a group later – the fighting Scot was in control of his own destiny. He entered the 14th three shots behind and seemed to be out of it. But he made a 41-foot birdie putt on No. 14. He made a stunning eagle on the dune grass at No. 16, thanks to a sprinkler hidden beneath his feet. The score was tied.
MacIntyre is not the most intimidating of men. He is friendly and welcoming, with a pale face, but he does not look like an elite player. He started in the last group with 24-year-old rising star Ludvig Oberg, and watched as the 6-foot-3 Swede ceded a two-shot lead on the back nine and quickly dropped out of contention. Another player, handsome Australian veteran Adam Scott, who was 17 under, waited in the scorer’s tent after missing a 14-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole. It was MacIntyre’s place to take.
Once again, MacIntyre was just outside the fairway in the light rough. All he needed was a pitching wedge. He hit a high, side-to-side draw that landed high in the middle of the green, leaving a double-breaking 14-footer for Scottish immortality. He felt strangely comfortable standing on it.
And when it came in, the adults hugged and cried. His whole family hugged. Soon the audience was singing “The Flower of Scotland” in unison.
MacIntyre dropped his club, screamed with his whole body, thrust his hips and swung his fists. He walked over to his caddie and let Åberg finish his putt, then put his hand on his forehead and looked up at the sky in disbelief. He crouched down, holding back tears.
MacIntyre became the first Scottish golfer to win the National Open in 25 years.
“This is exactly what I wanted,” he said.
As the Oban natives say, Glencruton will have “a good West Coast selley”.
“It could take a few days to recover and we expect Bob to be back tomorrow with the trophy,” member John Tannehill said Sunday night.
Then a reporter told MacIntyre he was due to give a press conference at Royal Troon for the Scottish Open Championship at 3pm on Monday. He paused and spoke cautiously.
“I think my schedule might change. I don’t think I’ll be in good enough condition to go to Troon. I don’t think I’ll be legally able to drive either.”
Robert MacIntyre is the first Scot to win the National Open in 25 years. (Luke Walker/Getty Images)
Oban took Bob in and helped him achieve great success. As a result, he put the town in the limelight. Reporters often come to tell Bob’s story. Glencruitten has seen a surge in business as people come to play at Macintyre’s home course. Signs are posted all over the town saying “Bob Macintyre’s Home”.
So when he moved to Florida to play on the PGA Tour this year and prepare for the year as most great golfers eventually do, he wasn’t happy. He often said he lost his “mojo” this summer and talked about how different life on the PGA Tour is from the European golf circuit.
It wasn’t until Wednesday that Macintyre said he wouldn’t raise his rent in Orlando again. It wasn’t worth it. He’d go back to Scotland and then back to the US when the time came.
So, in the week he officially recommitted to home and inner truth, Macintyre won the National Open against a field of competitors that included the best players in the world. He left home to become great. He came back to prove that he was already great.
It all happened just five days after two Scots walked up Glencruitten’s steep 12th fairway, reached the green, turned around and pointed to the house where Macintyre grew up. They were the people who had flown with Macintyre to Rome to watch him at the Ryder Cup and played a round with him on Tuesday after he won the Canadian Open in June.
One of the men, Declan Curran, joked that MacIntyre was taking the pressure lightly, but they said they wanted him to do the double and win back-to-back Scottish and Open Championships. They laughed, but believed it.
McIntyre is already halfway there, but he’ll be happy with it forever.
(Above photo: Octavio Passos / Getty Images)
