When Bob MacIntyre arrived at Augusta National earlier this week, he was strongly fancied to contend for the Green Jacket.
In his last couple of tournaments, at The Players Championship and last week’s Texas Open, his form was good. Bidding to win a first major, there was a consensus that MacIntyre was trending in the right direction.
His opening round started well enough. He was one-under through his first three holes. Then the wheels came off in spectacular fashion.
By the time MacIntyre had reached the turn, he was three-over par. A calamitous quadruple-bogey nine on the 15th, followed by another dropped shot on the 17th, eventually saw him card a round of 80.
Eight-over par. Disaster. As the red mist descended, his chances had gone up in smoke. There was no way back for the Scot, who was all set to miss the cut after today’s second-round 71.
But it wasn’t just his score that was a talking point this week. His foul-mouthed outbursts in that first round, slamming his club into the ground on several occasions, as well as aiming a crude middle-fingered salute at a pond on the 15th, drew a lot of criticism.
Bob MacIntyre cuts a frustrated figure during his first-round 80 at the Masters in Augusta
What happened on the 15th was certainly the nadir of the meltdown, with MacIntyre twice hitting his ball into the water. But there was also a lot of other stuff to unpack.
It got to a point where Sky Sports repeatedly had to apologise. ‘Jesus, f***,’ raged MacIntyre after one errant shot. ‘F****** w*****,’ after another.
Maybe a bleep machine would have been best. Or to show MacIntyre’s coverage on a five-second delay. It certainly did him no favours.
Let’s not be sanctimonious about it. MacIntyre is not the first golfer to lose the rag and utter a few expletives. He won’t be the last either. But his meltdowns are becoming more pronounced and more concerning.
The swearing is one thing. But to be slamming his clubs into the ground and hacking up chunks of turf is quite another. That’s inexcusable.
Bearing in mind, MacIntyre’s dad, Dougie, is a greenkeeper. How would his old man react if he saw someone behaving like this back home at Glencruitten?
To lash out and damage a golf course like that is the height of ignorance and disrespect. Watching it all on TV, it was pretty embarrassing.
MacIntyre gets a lot of praise. He’s Scottish, he’s passionate, and he’s supremely talented. We all root for him in these big events. Of course we do. Just the same as we rooted for Andy Murray back in the day.
But personal sentiment and national pride do not make MacIntyre immune to criticism. That’s just not how this job works.
None of this is new to MacIntyre. His tantrums and hot-headed nature is not something he has ever sought to conceal.
At The Open Championship last year, he was asked about how he deals with setbacks and disappointment whenever he has played poorly.
‘I can go as mental as I want for an hour [after my round] and then after that, just back to life,’ he said. ‘You can break things. Literally do whatever I want for an hour. After that hour is gone, my job’s done.
‘I think it’s fair game to lose the plot every now and again.’
It was almost as if he revels in the volatility. Like he views himself as having an angry alter ego, almost like the Scottish Tyrrell Hatton.
MacIntyre is so angry with his approach to the 17th that he slams his club into the ground
But, in terms of what happened yesterday, this wasn’t after his round. This was on the course, in full view of the watching world. It was a monumental implosion.
When MacIntyre snapped his putter during the Sony Open in January earlier this year, he paid a heavy penalty.
‘My attitude cost me this golf tournament,’ he reflected. ‘I can’t be allowing that. My attitude has got to be spot-on for 72 holes.’
And that’s the point. Things don’t appear to be getting any better. If anything, his temper is getting worse, to the point that it is consuming him out on the golf course.
MacIntyre became a father earlier this year. Elite sportsmen will often talk about how fatherhood brings a more mellow side to their character. It gives them a greater sense of perspective.
But he continues to run extremely hot. The concern with MacIntyre is that his poor temperament will undermine his world-class ability.
Look at the top players across any sport. The vast, vast majority of them are able to enter an almost zen-like state in the heat of battle.
When they make a mistake, they brush it off almost instantly and move on. Whereas, with MacIntyre, too often he compounds one error with another. It’s a glaring mental flaw in his armoury.
Golf is different to other sports. If a tennis player smashes their racket in between points, they pull out a new one and they move on.
If a footballer wants to argue with a referee over a decision, they can do so. If they are playing poorly, there’s always a chance to make amends, a chance that their team-mates will bail them out.
Mistakes in golf are more pronounced. The punishment can be instant and savage. One bad hole can prove to be a card-wrecker, as was the case with MacIntyre at the 15th.
The tournament officials at The Masters invariably take a very dim view of this stuff. It was no surprise that MacIntyre was given an official reprimand and spoken to about his conduct.
The crux of the problem is that MacIntyre almost seems to normalise his volatility. It was evident when he spoke at Royal Portrush last year about ‘going mental’ and smashing things up for an hour.
Unless he can conquer these mental demons, they could undermine his immense talent. He must realise this himself.
Elite sport is about emotional maturity as much as it is about technical skill. You either learn to tame the beast within, or you let it consume you.
As written in these pages earlier this week, the parallels between MacIntyre and Murray are now unavoidable.
The Scot delivers a crude, middle-finger gesture after his ball disappears into water at the 15th
Murray possessed enough raw talent and natural ability to frequently get himself into contention to win Grand Slams. He was a regular in finals and semi-finals.
But it was only when he started working with his coach Ivan Lendl that he was able to take the next step and actually get over the line.
‘He [Lendl] has made a really big difference to Andy in terms of the emotional control on the court. I think that’s helped Andy to play his best tennis for longer periods of time. We all owe him a lot.’
The words of Murray’s mum, Judy, shortly after he had won his first Wimbledon title in 2013.
This is the crossroads at which MacIntyre now finds himself. Nobody doubts his natural talent. He is a proven winner and now ranked inside the world’s top 10 players.
But if he is to take the next step and win majors, it’s hard to see how that happens without him winning the battle inside his own head first and foremost.
The damage at this year’s Masters was done yesterday. From that point, he needed a miracle to make the cut. Any thoughts of a comeback were dynamited by a double bogey on his very first hole today. In the end, a seven-over-par halfway total meant he was destined to miss out on the weekend.
But the vast expanses of Augusta were no more of a problem than the six inches between his ears.
