Robert MacIntyre is trying to become the first player to win a PGA Tour event with his father carrying the bag since Heath Slocum won the Sanderson Farms Championship with his father Jack in 2005. MacIntyre’s father, Dougie, gave his son the encouragement he needed after he made back-to-back bogeys on the 8th and 9th holes.
“When I walked down the fairway from the 10th tee, he blew up at me. Look, he's a sportsman, he knows how to win, he knows how to lose, he's been through it all. He could see I was a little irritated, and he said, what have you been doing for the last eight weeks, 10 weeks, whatever I was doing, and then I realized what the problem was. I went into that mode of trying to find the positive in everything,” McIntyre said.
He said it was just what he needed to get back on track. The turning point for the Scot came after one hole, 11day He hit it up the fairway and it rolled into the seed hole.
“Instead of complaining and grumbling, I was like, you know what, this seed mark allowed me to hit a 6-iron, a perfect 6, and I guess if it wasn’t for the seed mark, I wouldn’t have hit that shot. So I tried to turn a negative into a positive,” he explained. “Just kind of just found the momentum. I made a putt, made a long putt, and then, when the ball started rolling, it felt great.”
Asked what he learned from the Rome Ryder Cup that could help him in Sunday's final, McIntyre said: “A lot. People have told me a few things, obviously my partner Justin Rose, he does it all in the game of golf and I have so much respect for him, especially as a partner going for the same goal. “He gave me something I will never forget and I'm going to try to live up to it tomorrow and play my best and it will be like this.”
“You're not going to tell me what that is?” a reporter asked.
“No,” McIntyre said, laughing.
To learn more about MacIntyre's story, see 5 Things to Know About Bobby Mac.
