B-Mac delivers Scottish thrill to home fans
Missteps deny Adam Scott drought buster; Wiesberger may sue tour for access
Scotland’s Robert Macintyre kicks door in on his personal major. (Octavio Passos/Getty Images)
Let’s go with what I took from Sunday at the Genesis Scottish Open.
The big storyline was a one-shot victory by Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre over soon-to-be 44-year-old Adam Scott, but there is so much more behind the cover.
Let’s start with the star of the day — MacIntyre, the pride of Oban.
It was a nice story when the pride of Scotland came up just short in last year’s Scottish Open to Rory McIlroy. Then he got the nod on Luke Donald’s European Ryder Cup team, which gave him a little more cred. However, he was still looking for a victory on the PGA Tour, which he found earlier this year in Canada at the RBC Canadian Open.
All that pales compared to THE WIN! MacIntyre said before the tournament started: “There's no other golf tournament, I would say, other than the major championships that would overtake this one.”
But what made Sunday’s triumph at the Renaissance Club bigger and likely better than a one-and-done affair was how he did it.
B-Mac made birdie from a different area code on the 14th hole to get to 15-under, just two shots back of Scott with four holes to play.
A bit of an offline drive on the par-5 16th put MacIntyre in a bit of bother, but eventually, the sprinkler head that was in the vicinity gave the Scot a free drop. He was still in the rough but with a little better lie than he had before the relief.
Getting a break is one thing; doing something with it is what counts.
MacIntyre did exactly that and would look at a 6-footer for eagle and a tie for the lead, which, when it found the bottom of the cup, all of Scotland raised up out of the seats in glee and yelled “Bobbie!”
Those yells for MacIntyre became even louder when the Scot found the green on the difficult 18th and did exactly what he did a year ago in the final round — made a finishing birdie.
The birdie in 2023 was eventually for a runner-up finish to Rory McIlroy, who came in behind MacIntyre with a dramatic birdie of this own. This time, however, it was MacIntyre in position to make birdie to win the entire Haggis burger — or, in the case of cold hard cash, €1,448,9745 euros ($1,577,282).
His second victory — matching the same Canada/Scotland combo McIlroy did last year — will clearly move Bobbie Mac into the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking (he’s currently No. 45). But more importantly, it puts the homegrown MacIntyre in a grouping of favorites to win in Scotland in consecutive weeks as the Open is on deck at Royal Troon.
For Adam Scott, the analysis is pretty simple. He played great in spurts, making seven birdie on Sunday. But other times he made mistakes — two bogeys and a double bogey that offset his opportunity to win for the first time in four years.