If, by any chance, you happen to be wandering around in Phoenix – and we’re talking about Phoenix, Arizona here not the Phoenix Bar in Dundee’s Nethergate – then you may see a few of the locals wearing an Oban Celtic shinty shirt.
During last week’s WM Phoenix Open, a traditionally lively old shindig that’s golf’s equivalent of a knees-up thrown by Bacchus, Robert MacIntyre hurled a few of his home club’s tops into the well-lubricated crowds that surround the famous 16th hole.
MacIntyre, who was kitted out in the green and white hoops himself, also attached a $20 bill to each gift so the lucky receivers could top up their tumblers of Coors Light. Who said us Scots are tight?
“I think we threw away 18 or 19 shirts,” said the 28-year-old of his charm offensive. “When they got it they were like ‘what the hell is this?’. They find it’s $20 and start to think ‘fair play’.
“I think the club have actually had a few sales on the shirts. It will pay for the team mini bus for a few months. It was just a bit of fun with the crowd and I was trying to get them on my side in some way.”
A year ago, as a PGA Tour rookie, MacIntyre was trying to come to terms with the professional and personal challenges of life on the other side of the pond.
Twelve months on, the Oban lefty is a two-time winner on the circuit and 14th in the world. Life is good.
Even his putting, that fickle, infuriating part of the golfing process, is beginning to behave itself.
Tee-to-green, MacIntyre is up there with the best of them on the PGA Tour. The statistics from the putting surfaces, though, were causing cause for concern.
“It’s been absolutely obvious for everyone to see,” added the reigning Scottish and Canadian Open champion of his topsy-turvy relationship with the flat stick.
His work, however, with the putting guru, Mike Kanski, is beginning to reap some rewards and the proof was in the Phoenix pudding as MacIntyre finished in a share of sixth.
“It’s only been two weeks since I started working with him but in Phoenix, the putter felt great in my hands,” he cooed.
“They were the quickest greens you are probably going to play on. They were running up about 13 (on the stimp). If I can putt on them, I can putt on nearly anything.”
Bringing Kanski into Team MacIntyre is just another step in the ongoing quest for improvement. In this game, and at this level, you can’t afford to rest on any laurels.
“I feel that since I came over here to the US, my work has become a lot more professional,” said MacIntyre, who is currently competing at Torrey Pines in the Genesis Invitational.
“There’s so much on the line out here and it’s a case of ‘what is going to make me a better golfer?’ Whatever that is, whatever it costs, whatever I need to do, I am going to do it.
“When I first came over here and played in majors and WGC events, they were right at the top for me at the time and I was putting so much pressure on myself because of that.
“Now, I’m comfortable in this environment and these events aren’t getting any bigger for me. I’m coming out here and playing against the same guys every week.
“As a team, we are doing everything we can to get me on that golf course feeling as free as I can and prepared as I can to go and perform.”
MacIntyre’s good friend, Thomas Detry, was the runaway winner in Phoenix as the Belgian romped to his first PGA Tour victory
MacIntyre partnered Detry in last season’s Zurich Classic. How about reprising that double act in the Ryder Cup this year?
“100 per cent,” smiled MacIntyre. “I want to be on that team at Bethpage and I’m starting to build up the points and move up the rankings. Thomas came up the same way as I did, from the Challenge Tour to the DP World Tour to the PGA Tour. It’s brilliant to see that the pathway works.”
As Detry basks in the glow of his win, MacIntyre is hoping his turn will come again soon.
“It’s not been electric, but, overall, it’s been solid,” he said of his early-season form. “We are just waiting for that something to happen.”
Watch this space.
