;)
Robert Macintyre celebrated his open loss to the US on Sunday.
Nbc
Oakmont, without. – Robert Macintyre knew before he knew how.
He would fight through 72 holes of a truth, Kick-in-the-teeth open – Through rough and hated lies, through embedded heat and a moving rainstorm, through birds and bogeys. And yet, after four brutal days in Oakmont, he would fall short.
“I’ve said it all Java, “he said after a last round 69 briefly made the club leader.” The paramilit level has been the result in my head. “
At the moment, Macintyre may have allowed himself to believe he was in the abyss of his first major championship. Leaders, still in the Golf course behind him, were folding like a free cardboard box in Sunday’s Monsoon, slamming through the rough and mud in a luggage noise. Macintyre had just ended the only sub-parish round of the final seventeen Groups in the US open Sunday.
But whenever Macintyre looked at the steering chart to see himself in 1 over the same week, he know. So much when someone finally asked him where it would be Look at jj spaun And the rest of the open leaders of the US as they dug the last hill towards the club, he laughed.
“I may not.”
Of course, he had to look. He was the leader of the club in a big championship. He had no other choice. And so Robert Macintyre entered the scorer’s room with the wooden wood in Oakmont and found a place in a folding chair, lighting a television screen while JJ Spaun lit down the pit of his life.
It was just seconds later that the 72nd of the 72nd Spawn found the bottom of the hole somehow-pointing a dagger through the open Macintyre dreams in the US. And just a few seconds until NBC lit Macintre’s face for several million people as he clashed with the fact that he would fall shy.
Maybe because Macintyre knew he was a short shot all the time. Maybe because he would try not to let his open American dreams go too far. Maybe because he was as surprised as the rest of us. But when the collapse and camera of the camera caught him, Robert Macintyre did something interesting: he cheered.
Applause lasted perhaps five seconds, joined by a hearty laugh and a answer with a word – “Wow. “ – But it would happen very suddenly to be everything else but sincere. Spaun had broken the heart of the Macintyre, but in a strange way, he would also soften the blow.
“He won the golf tournament,” Macintyre said Golf.com Nearly half an hour later. “Right game. I mean, he is dreamed of for him. I’ve dreamed of it. Everyone has dreamed of that moment. That he pours into the winning putt, I mean, nothing I can do. Right game.”
Macintyre disappeared in the closet room for a long time after the spaun stroke fell, but his spirits were easier when he repeated outside the green club, Oakmont’s Tudor style. His family supported him from both sides, wear his golf dresses and without lack of emotional luggage of the day.
It was only eleven months ago that the same group followed Macintre from another Tudor -style club after an Open National. He was there, at the Renaissance club in Scotland in July 2024, which Macintyre stayed on the other side of fate, pouring in a curly 22 meters to destroy someone else’s dreams and win the Scottish Open in front of a delirious crowd.
“This is the chance you wanted you, Take it, ” Macintyre told himself as he stood on that life -changing blow before disappearing in a celebration that included numerous members of the crying family. In June 2025, he imagined that Spaun told himself something similar.
“I mean, I’ve done it,” he said from parking to Oakmont on Sunday evening, unable to stall a smile. “You just want someone to make Golf tournament. “
The celebration from Macintyre was then more pronounced, but the celebration of it was now more discovering. There will be no party all night, no winner press conference. His trophy for Sunday’s efforts came in a brown card: a new golf bag.
As he disappeared overnight, it was difficult not to see a romantic quality in Bob Macintyre’s golf. He played the best when golf was more difficult and the lights were brighter. His best was not enough, and he accepted him with a smile on his face.
“Right game, JJ,” said Macintre from the parking lot.
And you knew he used to say it.
;)
James Colgan
Golfit.com editor
James Colan is a news editor of news and features in Golf, writing stories on the website and magazine. He manages the hot germ, golf media vertical and uses his experience on camera across brand platforms. Before entering Golf, James graduated from Siracuse University, during which time he was a caddy scholarship receiver (and Astuta Looper) in Long Island, where he is. He can be reached on James.colgan@golf.com.