Robert MacIntyre had a hard time rolling with the breaks Royal Birkdale dealt him on Sunday. The warning he received for venting his frustration? That didn’t bother him at all.
After what was reportedly his second club-slamming outburst of the day, MacIntyre was issued a code of conduct warning following his tee shot on the par-4 16th hole during the final round of the Open Championship. Asked about it afterward, the fiery Scotsman was unfazed.
“I expect to get a few of them in my career,” MacIntyre said. “Yeah, I run hot. So be it.”
MacIntyre, who began the day at three under, seven shots off the lead, teed off at 7:05 a.m. alongside Cameron Young in relatively calm conditions. While Young took full advantage, birdieing his first three holes en route to a six-under 64 and the clubhouse lead, MacIntyre stalled as any distant hopes of a Sunday charge faded. He finished the day with a one-over 71.
As the final round wore on, the wind strengthened, Royal Birkdale grew even more exacting, and emotions boiled over elsewhere, too. Even Scottie Scheffler, the game’s best player and one of its most consistent flat-liners, barked in anger after his tee shot on the par-5 17th got a less-than-favorable bounce. MacIntyre, for his part, has never claimed to be a cool customer, and he wasn’t about to apologize for it.
“I’m going to do it for the rest of my career,” he said. “I try and toe the line, but when you feel you’re playing a golf course that you can hit it pretty much anywhere and there’s no real punishment and then you do hit one slightly off line and you get the biggest punishment you can possibly get, it’s just a sore one. Again, I’m going to react aggressively at times. Part of my DNA.”
MacIntyre also made clear he wasn’t losing sleep over the warning itself.
“To be honest, I couldn’t care less,” he said. “If I got a two-shot penalty, it’s my fault. A warning, it’s my fault. I don’t really worry about it.”
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