Feisty Robert MacIntyre sounds like he's set to stare down Scottie Scheffler and jeering fans at BMW
Robert MacIntyre points to a hecking fan after he made a par putt on the 14th hole.
Kevin C. Cox
After his post-round comments on Saturday afternoon, we don’t know if Scotsman Robert MacIntyre is going to face even more partisan jeering on Sunday when he again goes toe to toe with American Scottie Scheffler in the final group of the BMW Championship, but give him this: The pasty-faced man is a lot more feisty and dangerous on the course than he looks.
MacIntyre mostly went blow for blow against the world’s best player in the third round, shooting 68 to Scheffler’s 67, and by making a 41-foot birdie putt on the 18th hole, he gave himself a four-shot cushion heading into the penultimate Sunday of the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup Playoffs.
The 29-year-old Scot did so amid some attempts to rattle him at Caves Valley in Owings Mills, Md.—the most egregious being a shout while he was attempting a seven-foot par putt on the 14th hole.
“Yeah, he was just jeering,” MacIntyre said dryly when asked about it after the round. “He was just shouting I missed it; ‘he's pushed it.’ Pushed it right in the middle of the hole, I guess.”
As the ball dropped in MacIntyre turned toward the fan, pointed and brought his index finger to his mouth in the universal “shush” gesture. He’d probably been waiting for the opportunity all day, considering he said the began hearing chatter against him as he walked from the driving range to the first tee.
“It ain't bothering me. It's there,” MacIntyre said. “… If they do it outside the shot, it's fair game, but don't do it within the shot that's going to affect myself or Scottie.
“I totally expected it,” he said. “I totally expected to be in this situation today when I'm in this position. It's going to be the exact same tomorrow.
“Yeah, I'll give as good back as I get. Look, I thought I played great. There was obviously a couple of shouts. But no, there's plenty of security there that are hearing it and seeing it, and yeah, I did see them talk to a few people. I don't know if anyone was thrown out, but there was plenty of people to talk to.”
Does the heckling fire him up?
“One hundred percent,” MacIntyre said. “It can go two ways. But look, I grew up all my days amateur golf being the one on the outside looking in, faced not fitting [in], really fighting for it. What we say in the team, it's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog, and I grew up fighting to be in this position.”
Scheffler was sympathetic—to a point.
“I didn't see any of that,” he said. “I played with Bob when we were in Scotland. I heard some fairly choice words when I was leading the [Open Championship] in Ireland.
“I think it's part of it. People have a tendency to say things that are dumb. I can think of a few things that were said to me in the final round in Ireland that were very far over the line. If you're a fan, it's only going to fire the guy up more, and I think just do your best to behave out there. It can be a little bit silly sometimes.”
One other distraction on Saturday, confirmed by Scheffler, was that the final pairing was put on the clock on the ninth hole.
“I mean, it's frustrating. I didn't really feel like I did anything to put us behind on time,” Scheffler said. "Bob and I got warned on No. 9, and I felt like we did some pretty good stuff on 9, 10 and 11, and we somehow didn't gain a single second on pace of play. I'm not really sure how that's possible.
“It's just one of those things where all of a sudden now I'm punished for a rules decision I did not totally agree with, and then I can feel [the wind] gusting on 12, I can feel it gusting on 13, and there was nothing I can do about it; you've got to get up there and hit the shot.
“Overall I did what I could to keep us on pace, and hopefully we don't run into that situation tomorrow.”
MacIntyre, who is from Oban on Scotland’s west coast, has talked about his working-class upbringing. He grew up with two foster sisters, and they gave up the horse they loved because the parents couldn’t afford both the upkeep of the animal and funding MacIntyre’s golf. The family later took in another foster child, a boy.
“I was given a great opportunity by my whole family,” MacIntyre said after he outdueled Adam Scott by one shot to win last year’s Scottish Open—a year after he was beaten in his home event by Rory McIlroy.
MacIntyre finds himself in an enviable position now. Also a winner last year in the RBC Canadian Open, he stands at No 14 in the World Ranking and with a BMW victory would climb from No. 20 in the FedEx Cup standings to No. 3. It would also mark MacIntyre’s first victory in the United States, where he began playing fulltime last year after notching two wins on the European Tour.
He, of course, has to contend again on Sunday with the playing monster that is Scheffler. The FedEx Cup points leader and two-time major winner this year is gunning for his fifth victory of the season, and Saturday’s third round marked the 16th consecutive round under par for the Texan.
If not for MacIntyre, whose 16-under total for 54 holes marks a personal record, Scheffler, at 12 under, would be looking at another dominant performance. Ludvig Aberg, two shots behind Scheffler, seems to be the only player truly in contention, with Sam Burns and Harry Hall eight shots off the lead.