You win tournaments in Cyprus and Italy. You play in a Ryder Cup. You make the PGA Tour. The nice sport takes you locations, and it feels applicable to decide to your future by shifting to Florida. There comes some extent in lots of lives when it’s a must to select whether or not house is who you might be or house is what propels you to your potential.
You contend for a PGA Championship. Two weeks later you win your first PGA Tour occasion. Your life is changing into the whole lot you dreamed.
But you aren’t glad.
You lengthy for the Glencruitten Golf Club clubhouse, the comfy little one-story shack in Oban the place a reporter can stroll in to seek out eight males leaning again in a semicircle of chairs, pints in hand at midday on a Tuesday, wanting up with a smirk as they’re requested in the event that they know Bob Macintyre.
“Bob who?” a white-haired man asks with a straight face.
Bob Macintyre. The delight of Scottish golf. The 27-year-old lefty creating into one of many higher golfers on the planet.
“Who’s he?” the person asks once more.
Neil Armour maintains the stare till he pulls up his telephone which already has a photograph of the boyish, soft-featured Macintyre in a modern, well-tailored swimsuit sitting within the Royal Box at Wimbledon the day earlier than. They’re passing the telephone round chuckling the way in which pricey family and friends actually do when humbling a member of the tribe who’s made it huge. Yes, they know Macintyre all too properly. These are the boys who watched Bob, Dougie the greenskeeper’s son, develop up at Glencruitten. They watched him study the sport “as a wee lad” enjoying Glencruitten’s again 4 holes on the opposite aspect of the street on a continuing loop till Dougie felt he was prepared for the remainder. They noticed him hit a hole-in-one by age 12 and win the native junior event 4 years in a row. They drove him to tournaments and a few helped out financially when it was crucial. They play shinty with him at Oban Celtic and clamor for his mom Carol’s scones.
“Aye, he’s an excellent boy,” Neil MacDougall says. “Well grounded. Nice younger lad.”
This is why Bob Macintyre isn’t glad. He’s dwelling in Orlando. He’s a member on the prestigious Isleworth Golf and Country Club. He’s made $3 million the final seven months alone. But it’s simply totally different. It’s much less communal. In America, the professionals journey in groups with their swing coach, physiotherapist, psychologist, supervisor and so forth. It’s a enterprise. Whereas arising in Europe they’d journey with different professionals spending evenings studying about one another’s lives most nights over lunch within the clubhouse or dinner and drinks. He admits he and his girlfriend, Shannon, really feel lonely.
A scene in Oban, a city of 8,000 individuals. (Brody Miller / The Athletic)
He goes again dwelling every time he can, spending three weeks again in Oban earlier than his breakthrough win on the Canadian Open in June. Instead of taking that victory into the signature occasion, the Memorial, he flew proper again dwelling the following week for a celebration.
This week, Macintyre performs the Scottish Open in North Berwick earlier than heading to Royal Troon for an Open Championship in Scotland. So as Macintyre finds himself torn between the 2 parallel paths of who he actually is — as he tries to resolve the place he desires to spend his life — I felt compelled to drive from Edinburgh to this little fishing city on the western coast of Scotland to seek out out why this 8,000-person city has such a maintain on the person. We realized one thing about dwelling.
“I simply discover I get introduced again down-to-earth …,” Macintyre says. “When I am going again to Oban, I get handled as Bob, one of many boys, not Robert Macintyre, the golfer. I believe that’s the way in which it ought to be.”
The second has gone viral now — you’ve absolutely seen it — however watch it once more, particularly the minute earlier than the microphone goes to Dougie Macintyre. He hovered just a few ft away from his son, slowly scanning his head across the scene in Hamilton, Ontario. He had a glance of awe, taking in his son’s first PGA Tour victory whereas carrying his golf equipment. Macintyre wanted a caddie for simply the Canadian Open. Most caddies didn’t need a one-week gig, so he known as his father up in Oban. Dougie hopped on a flight to Ottawa. Five days later they had been victors. Together.
As CBS reporter Amanda Balionis motioned towards Dougie to ask him a query, he appeared to barely again away. He’s not a talker. But Dougie was, whether or not he preferred it or not, the story of the week. Maybe much more than his son. She went to the opposite aspect and cornered him. He may hardly get the phrases out.
“Unbelievable. I’m a grass-cutter,” Dougie stated, pausing to show and maintain again tears with Bob lovingly patting his head. “Not a caddie. Not a caddie. Honestly, it’s unbelievable.”
“I needed to win this for my dad.” ❤️
Robert MacIntyre spoke to our @Amanda_Balionis on what it meant profitable the @RBCCanadianOpen along with his father on the bag. pic.twitter.com/aMeTEgDdEz
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) June 2, 2024
Back dwelling, they had been packed into the clubhouse watching and cheering. They knew how surreal this was for Dougie, who’s greater than a grass-cutter. They knew how particular. Dougie was an athlete, an excellent shinty participant however good at soccer and golf too. He didn’t have the funds to chase it. He grew to become a greenskeeper at Glencruitten and raised 4 children in the home by the twelfth gap and introduced in foster children too. Bob’s two older sisters had been expert horse riders, they usually additionally made sacrifices to offer Bob the chance. Bob was the one with the chance to do extra, and Dougie coached him.
“He was the one one,” Armour stated. “You’ll hear different individuals say they coached Bob however they didn’t. Bob’s dad coached him.”
On this Tuesday, Dougie was on the mower slicing the grass on an unsightly day of Scottish climate. The course is a beast, a brief however absurdly hilly 18 holes of steep inclines and tight fairways. “You can see how Bob obtained so good,” membership captain Kenny Devine stated. They solely have three mowers and the tools is in want of updating. Dougie doesn’t complain. He hopped off the mower as he noticed a stranger approaching. He’s used to reporters being right here by now, however he’s not used to it.
He turned pink solely to smile and say within the sweetest method attainable, “No, no, I don’t do interviews. Feel free to speak to anybody. I simply don’t… yeah … I’m sorry.”
Dougie and Carol raised their children to be humble. Macintyre wasn’t in a position to play a lot junior golf as a result of they couldn’t afford it. Members took turns driving him to the occasions he may play and a few carried his bag. Raising a golfer was a communal endeavor, however it meant they had been all a part of it.
James Forgrieve was an excellent golfer right here in his personal proper and a distinguished determine within the space. When requested what a younger Macintyre was like, he dryly quipped, “Oh, a cheeky —” earlier than laughing and correcting himself. “No no, all the time a really quiet lad.”
“James was actually supportive to Bob and all of the juniors,” his nephew Duncan Forgrieve stated. “When Bob was coming by means of and possibly issues weren’t so good, lots of people helped him in numerous methods and James is in that class.”
It’s not the norm for a golfer to take this a lot delight of their dwelling. They may get introduced by the starter as from their city or converse fondly of it, however all of them are inclined to reside in Florida or Arizona now. Few really feel as intertwined with dwelling as Macintyre. It’s on the core of his id — Bob from Oban — and it really works each methods. Macintyre has helped put the place on the map. It’s just a little resort city, a cease for vacationers on their method to the isles to the northwest. It has a robust fishing business and exquisite websites like McCaig’s Tower, which is product of Bonawe granite and overlooks the town and bay. Suddenly it boasts itself as “The Home of Robert Macintyre,” with indicators all through the city. People come to Glencruitten simply to play his dwelling course. Scotland is thought for golf, however at its core Oban is extra of a shinty city. It’s a bodily, intense sport. Duncan described it as “hockey with out the foundations,” and Macintyre nonetheless performs for Oban Celtic. He realized to not hold jewellery on just a few years in the past when it obtained caught and practically took off his finger.
“Aye, superb. Very good,” Duncan stated. “He’s robust and decided. Resourceful.”
“And sizzling tempered!” one other man shouted throughout the bar.
These are Macintyre’s individuals. When he earned the ultimate computerized qualifying spot for the 2023 Ryder Cup, he flew 15-20 of them to Rome and set them up in a villa. Instead of flying again privately like most of his friends would, he switched to a business flight and flew dwelling with the crew. When they returned, Macintyre went from faculty to high school within the space with the cup to talk and present the children. That night time, that they had a celebration “busting on the seams” at Glencruitten with a band enjoying and all people posing for footage, Macintyre fortunately smiling the entire night time.
“It was west coast cèilidh,” Duncan stated.
But as Macintyre left Oban this yr to play full time on the PGA Tour in America for the primary time, the homesickness didn’t go away. He went backwards and forwards as a lot as he may. He clarified he wasn’t having extreme psychological well being points, however “I simply didn’t have my mojo.” It all the time took returning to Oban to spark his sport. One couldn’t assist however surprise if it was sustainable.
“He nonetheless has wee spells,” James stated. “If he hasn’t obtained the girlfriend there or one thing, he’s a little bit of a loner. He’s a social man, however he’s a loner at occasions. The factor he appears ahead to is getting dwelling.”
Here he’s, again in Scotland at his nationwide open, sitting down in an argyle hat to characterize an area basis and able to converse to a bunch of reporters. He sees a group of veteran Scottish reporters within the entrance row. “There he’s,” he says to 1 with a smile. He’s comfy right here.
He talks about going again dwelling once more not too long ago, how when he’s dwelling he doesn’t choose up a membership and doesn’t exit a lot in any respect. He simply sinks into the normalcy of dwelling, consuming a few of Carol’s baking (after one in all his first wins he purchased his mom a brand new kitchen) and having lunch with the fellows at Glencruitten.
But he’s requested about Florida. About how he balances making an attempt to make Florida a brand new dwelling whereas staying related to the place that made him.
“My hire is up I take into consideration the tip of August, and I don’t assume I’ll be getting it renewed to be trustworthy,” Macintyre says. “Scotland is my dwelling, and yeah, I’ve joined Isleworth. That will all the time be a spot I am going and follow within the wintertime however there’s nothing like dwelling. Scotland, that is the place I wish to be.”
Glencruitten Golf Club in Oban, Scotland. (Brody Miller / The Athletic)
He’s staying on the PGA Tour. His transfer again gained’t change his skilled profession. He’ll possibly hire a home in Florida throughout winter months so he can follow extra however deep down, it’s not dwelling and he doesn’t assume it ever will probably be.
In this resolution, Macintyre discovered the trail in between. Home might be the place that holds you again. Comfort builds confidence, however consolation also can cease you from increasing into who you’re meant to be. Macintyre took the danger. He left dwelling and tried to take the leap into changing into an elite golfer. In actuality, dwelling was by no means holding Macintyre again. Oban, Glencruitten and all of the individuals in between? They had been those who obtained him right here. They’re those pushing him ahead.
So earlier than I made the drive again to Edinburgh, I walked the course that made Bob Macintyre. It was grueling however lovely, a inexperienced canvas full of daunting hills and difficult strategy photographs. Two Oban males had been strolling up the twelfth fairway that feels prefer it’s on a 100-yard incline. “This is the opening Bob realized to play golf on!” Declan Curran stated. They defined the way it’s a course of selections, with dangers and rewards primarily based on determining easy methods to play the wind and the elevation.
Bob Macintyre grew up studying easy methods to make the alternatives so as to turn into an excellent golfer. This time, he selected Oban.
(Top picture: Andrew Redington / Getty Images)
