Robert MacIntyre walked the 16th fairway on Sunday and knew what awaited him at the end of the final two and a half holes in TPC Sawgrass. He had been in this position before and had taken it out of line. But there are levels to winning in pro golf. MacIntyre I know this well. He has won the RBC Canadian Open and won his home Scottish Open, winning the championship that was closest to his heart.
But some tournaments are different – because of their meaning everyone and what does their victory mean to you? They live forever.
Whatever you do about the fifth keynote, Players Championship it’s one of those tours. There is a bit on one level below the four directions, but its importance is clear. “Very honored to call myself the Players’ Champion,” Rory McIlroy said after winning in 2019. “I said last year, if I had gone through my career and not won this tournament, I would have felt like I had missed something.”
Bob MacIntyre wanted to win the Players. Because it would put him alongside Sandy Lyle as the only Scottish players to win the PGA Tour’s main event. Because it would mark his name in history. But also because now he believes he can. He believes he was made to win major golf tournaments. Last Sunday’s run last summer that came up just short at the US Open told him that. Maybe he always believed it, but now he had concrete proof.
“I’ve learned so much, I can take the heat under the gun of this,” MacIntyre later told His near-miss Oakmont. “The US Open, the hardest test you can do, and I got a chance to go down on the court. For me, it was about being able to see how I was going to react and how I was going to stand up. I thought I did everything I could and I just beat the best man that day.”
JJ Spaun beat Bob MacIntyre that day in wet Pittsburgh, but the lesson was invaluable. On Sunday at TPC Sawgrass, it was at it again. MacIntyre found himself two shots back with three to play in another career-defining event. He knew he would need closing fireworks to catch on Matt Fitzpatrick and Cameron Youngand the par-5 16th presented an opportunity to send a shot up the leaderboard. MacIntyre split the fairway but found himself between the clubs from 246 yards out. The 3-wood would go in too hot, and the 7-wood was unlikely to return to the pin. He hit the 7 wood, hoping to get just short of the green to give himself a shot to get up and down for birdie. But the ball drifted left and buried, giving MacIntryre the “worst lie” he could get. He tried to chip it to the front of the putting green, but it came out quickly, rolled across the crisp 16th green and deposited in the pond, taking the dreams of MacIntyre’s Players with it.
This is the identity of the players. The pressure is already at 11, but on Sunday it ramps up to another level, especially in a closing stretch where carnage lurks around every corner. MacIntyre felt it and it was heavy. It’s a fine line to walk: wanting something so badly, but having the discipline not to make a huge mistake in pursuing it.
“It was stressful,” MacIntyre said after his fourth-place finish, three shots back Young’s winning score. “I was actually struggling to eat early on nine. Yeah, that’s what I want to do. It’s where I want to compete. Obviously, last year was kind of a big wake-up call for me to know that I could really compete at the top of world golf. Today I had a chance to do something very special that obviously our last place made it out of Sandy.
“In the middle of that back nine, I really thought I got in with a shout. The way I was playing, driving it beautifully, putting it incredibly, it was just a matter of getting the ball inside 30 yards and then looking out. Just disappointed with the disappointments on the back nine to finish, but I gave it a shot.”
As rains threatened to pour down on dreaded Oakmont last June, MacIntyre, who started that Sunday seven shots behind 54-hole leader Sam Burns, found strength in telling himself he could do it. He could see and feel that his game could withstand the toughest test in golf and stand where others crumbled. He knew this was for him.
“Today was a day I said to myself, why not? Why not be me today?” MacIntyre said at Oakmont.
Spaun won, but MacIntyre left Oakmont with a feeling he didn’t have when he arrived earlier in the week. He’ll leave TPC Sawgrass feeling it again, even if his back-nine charge ended in a slim loss.
Sure, his closing bogeys on 14 and 16 left a bad taste in his mouth, but the bigger picture is brighter. He sees it. It was another data point for Bob MacIntyre to fall back on as he continued his ascent.
“I’m a guy who believes,” MacIntyre said at Oakmont.
That belief wasn’t erased—only hardened—by a bad shot while pursuing the story in Players.
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