NORTH BERWICK, SCOTLAND | The Americans and the British have often had very different ways of doing things. Back in the 1970s, and maybe even later, unsuspecting Americans would come over for the Open Championship, only to find that we still had four-star hotels which called for visitors to walk down a corridor to find a bathroom.
In the meantime, there was a situation last week in which the 27-year-old Bob MacIntyre, who hails from the remote seaside town of Oban in the Highlands, said he had not felt particularly welcome on the PGA Tour.
Proud though he was to have earned his PGA Tour card by finishing in the top 10 among those on the 2023 DP World Tour who were not already exempt, he thought the Americans had done their new recruits a mischief by putting them in a “special category.” The category in question meant that they were given the trickiest starting times at one event after another.
“We’ve been put to the bottom,” said MacIntyre, who won 2½ points out of his three matches in Europe's successful week at last year’s Ryder Cup in Rome. “I’m back to being a rookie. Simple as that. It’s just hard when you’re teeing off last every week and getting the worst greens. It’s difficult to be positive at times.”
MacIntyre was speaking from South Carolina where he was about to have a practice round ahead of the Myrtle Beach Classic, where he eventually tied for 13th after sharing the first-round lead. Meanwhile, his audience, the Scottish media, were at the Renaissance Club, the much-loved venue for the upcoming Genesis Scottish Open and the course where MacIntyre finished second to Rory McIlroy last year.
“It’s just different because I can’t just go home and see everyone [parents, sisters and foster-brothers] and get the kind of vibe that goes with actually being at home and spending time with people who see you as Bob, the human, as opposed to Bob, the golfer.
Bob MacIntyre
He was glad to be talking to old friends, and he could not have been more accommodating when quizzed on his relatively disappointing year thus far. He had made the cut in only six of his 12 appearances in North America, with his most encouraging performance a share for sixth place in the Mexico Open at Vidanta.
He has been struggling with the different grasses on and around the U.S. greens, but there was more to it than that. At the same time as he was feeling uncomfortable in his new surrounds, he was having bouts of loneliness, not least on those occasions when he failed to make the weekend and was in no position to do what he would have done on the DP World Tour.
Then, he would head for the nearest airport the moment he holed his last putt, and from there embark on a journey which would entail flying one plane, or maybe two, to Glasgow before making the 90-mile, two-hour drive to Oban.
Though various members of the Bounce Sports Management team, along with friends, family, and girlfriend Shannon Hartley, have been accompanying him on his travels – and he is truly grateful for their support – he knows that it’s mostly a case of having to help himself.
“It’s just different because I can’t just go home and see everyone [parents, sisters and foster-brothers] and get the kind of vibe that goes with actually being at home and spending time with people who see you as Bob, the human, as opposed to Bob, the golfer. They treat me just as a pal that they’ve grown up with.
“My shinty pals might ask how the golf’s going, but there’s very little golf chat. If I’ve done well, they’ll pull me down, which is something we’re very, very good at in Scotland. In America, on the other hand, it’s about propping people up, trying to push them more into the limelight. It’s just a different culture.”
He elaborated on the loneliness that can attach to a typical American tournament day.
“If,” he said, “you’re sitting on your own at a tournament in Europe, other players will come up and join you. Out here, you don’t know many folk in that same depth, and they don’t come to sit next to you. There’s less chatting. There’s less dinners. There’s just less of that big family feel that you get on the European Tour.”
On another day, he might not have said what he said in so many words. Last Wednesday, though, he was like one of those endearing fictional characters who create a bit of havoc by stating what he sees as the truth and the whole truth. In which connection, Iain Stoddart, MacIntyre’s manager and the owner of Bounce Sports, always has been far too wise of a soul to encourage his clients to say nothing of any substance.
It has to be said that the Tom Kim interview which followed was rather different. For the 21-year-old South Korean, who turned professional at 15 and started playing on the Asian Tour at 16, settling down in the U.S. has been a cinch.
When he spoke of his friendship with Scottie Scheffler and the degree to which the world No. 1 had helped him, it might have prompted some people to wonder whether MacIntyre should seek out an American mentor. That, though, would not be him. He is more likely to look to his putter to set his golfing world to rights.
Yet, whatever the content of his over-the-phone remarks, our humble star of the Highlands was courteous throughout. Indeed, when he embarked on what was a rerun of the bad starting-time issue, he followed up with an apologetic, “I mean, I didn’t really want to say it, but …”
In the end, MacIntyre left the impression that it was a definite plus that he’d shaken so much off his chest. Given a good week in South Carolina, and a useful follow-up performance in this week’s PGA Championship, last Wednesday at the Renaissance Club could go down as the turning point.
E-MAIL LEWINE
Top: MacIntyre feels "put to the bottom" on the PGA Tour.
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