With dad on bag, Robert MacIntyre shines at RBC Canadian Open

ANCASTER, Ontario – Last weekend, Robert MacIntyre made an emergency call to his dad back home in Oban, Scotland.

MacIntyre is between caddies and needed a fill-in for this week’s RBC Canadian Open. Dougie MacIntyre hadn’t been on the bag since DP World Tour Q-School in 2017, but his son craved a slice of home amidst his first PGA TOUR season, which has been bright at times yet trying in others.

MacIntyre’s dad jumped at the opportunity, and the results have been fruitful. MacIntyre opened in rounds of 64-66 at Hamilton Golf and Country Club, a bogey-free 10-under 130 that placed him atop the leaderboard through Friday’s morning wave.

MacIntyre’s game had been trending; he entered the week with three top-15s in his last five starts, including a T8 at the PGA Championship at Valhalla. After coming so close to his first TOUR title at last summer’s Genesis Scottish Open, his home open (Rory McIlroy finished birdie-birdie to clip him by one), MacIntyre now finds himself in contention at another national open.

The Scotsman believes strongly in the significance of national opens – “I think they’re massive,” he said Friday afternoon – and now he’ll look to stave off Canadian contenders like Mackenzie Hughes (7-under) and Corey Conners (4-under), and other contenders like McIlroy on the weekend in southern Ontario.

He’ll do it with his dad on the bag. What has been the best part of the week, he was asked Friday? Spending time with his fill-in caddie.

“We’re trying to have as much fun as we can,” MacIntyre said. “This is an experience for the both of us, and he’s done a good job so far. It’s enjoyable. It’s taken my mind completely off the game of golf … I’ve only been home really three weeks since Jan. 3, so I don’t get to see my dad much. I phoned him, emergency phone call to come here last week. He jumped at the chance.

“It's good to just spend an extra week with loved ones.”

MacIntyre was asked Friday to name something he has learned from his dad. He paused before quipping, “Keep playing shinty.” Dougie MacIntyre is a highly skilled shinty player, his son said Friday, a ball-and-stick game from the Scottish Highlands that MacIntyre once described to Golf Digest as “a cross between field hockey and organized violence.”

The elder MacIntyre’s mix of competitive demeanor and well-timed wit has complemented his son’s mindset inside the ropes; MacIntyre has recently emphasized being kinder to himself on the course, he said Friday. That kindness is ingrained – his parents (Dougie and mom Carol) are longtime foster parents; some children would arrive at the household having been abused, battered or neglected. It shaped his worldview and kept him grounded. “I have learned a lot about life through my parents’ fostering,” MacIntyre told Golf Digest in 2019.

MacIntyre is known in the golf world for his kindness and humility. After middling results early in his rookie TOUR season (he missed five cuts in his first 10 starts, with just one top-25), it was just time to show it to himself.

“I’ve got the golf game to compete anywhere in the world, and I knew that,” MacIntyre said Friday. “There was something stopping me. There was something stopping me from competing. I felt like I had a terrible start to the year. Something was stopping me. We dug in deeper into stats and whatnot and we're like, ‘Everything's all right here, what is it?’ And then you’ve got to look yourself in the mirror and go, ‘You might be the problem.’

“We sat down, we spoke about it, and I think my attitude was a problem. Just now I'm working hard on that, trying to just stay as even keeled and just deal with whatever comes.”

MacIntyre is a perfect 10/10 in scrambling this week, indeed dealing with whatever comes. Expect that to continue this weekend in southern Ontario with a trusty bagman by his side.