Bob MacIntyre made an emergency call to deliver his caddy this week.
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It hasn't been an easy run for Robert MacIntyre, here in his first year as a full-time PGA Tour player. He almost won his home open in Scotland last summer, won the Ryder Cup in the fall, then moved to Orlando for a new golf life in America … and he doesn't like it.
He's feeling lonely like he's never felt before. He's feeling homesick like he's never felt before. And he was trying to find the right caddy everywhere.
MacIntyre changed caddies last fall, before the Ryder Cup, then stuck with his looper – Mike Burrow – for the start of 2024. Burrow has been around the block quite a bit on the PGA Tour, preparing for Danny Willett, Haotong Li and more. others. But between the Masters and the PGA Championship, MacIntyre is looking to move on, handing over his bag to Scott Carmichael.
For about five weeks, Carmichael hosted MacIntyre, but he committed to the wedding during the PGA Championship, so Burrow backed out. Of course, MacIntyre struggled for a while that week, too. But now he's separated from everyone and needs a full reset ahead of this week's Canadian Open.
Caddies have many ways to help their player, but MacIntyre doesn't need much, he says. More about having conversations on the course and keeping him comfortable, so he picked up the phone and called one of the most comfortable loops he'd ever had and begged them back into action: his dad, Dougie.
“I'm trying to get it all right,” MacIntyre said Thursday. “Yes, it was an emergency call on Saturday, he got up and went to the plate. He's a good golfer himself, but at this level, he's a little out of his depth. I thought you did a great job and kept it simple. The numbers are what they are. Go add a good photo to that number, and the results should be decent.”
That's the funny thing about golf sometimes. Their results were the same the best way there is a decent standard. The MacIntyres recently played 36 holes without a bogey, and earned a 36-hole lead in the process.
“We're just learning on the run – of course, he's – learning on the run and I'm trying to stay as calm as I can,” Bob Mac said. “If I miss a shot, I try not to get too upset. Yeah, we're just trying to have as much fun as we can.”
It's been pretty smooth so far for the two, with Bob getting his dad some snacks, carrying his dad's bag, and hitting 72% of the greens and trying to get a par every time he misses. It certainly helps that he finishes in the top 10 in each round in terms of placing. In total, it is the first 36-hole lead of the 27-year-old Scotsman's Tour career.
“Cool,” Bob said after the second round. “Look, it's something he can always say he's led a PGA Tour event at some point. What happens in the next two rounds, who knows. I'm going to go out there and do the same things, hit as many fairways as I can, hit as many good shots as I can, keep doing the same things. Like I keep saying, it's not rocket science, it's the golf course. It's you against it. I think I've done a good job so far.”
MacIntyre followed that up by making his first bogey of the week on the first hole in the third round, all while Rory McIlroy's boys and Tom Kim and others chased after them, with plenty of golf left. He would make two more bogeys on that front 9, too, dropping to four shots off the lead. But something changed during his third round. He made birdies on the 10th, followed by bogeys on the 14th, 15th and 16th, pushing him out of the field. Dad won't be able to just say he held the Tour lead – he'll lie in the 54-hole lead and caddy from Sunday's final pairing. For a professional who felt a longing for family during his first full year in the United States, that emergency call home seemed to be just the move he needed.
“Look, I'm just here playing,” said MacIntyre. “I've only been home for three weeks since January 3, so I don't see my father much. Apparently, I called him, an urgent call to come here last week. He jumped at the chance. It's nice to spend just one week with the people we love.”
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