Robert MacIntyre’s PGA Championship at brought another cut made in a major – five out of five and counting – and showed battling qualities on the toughest of courses, but his personal standards have advanced beyond that.
The Scot made just two double bogeys on a course claiming a lot of them this weekend. The last of them came at the brutal par three 17th, and meant he missed out on his first under par round on the Ocean Course.
“There are lots of positives from this week, but two (double bogeys) are two too many,” he said after his 73 left him on five-over for the championship.
‘I’m livid right now’
THATS A WRAP…🎬
A closing day 73 and @robert1lefty signs off on +5 at #PGAchamp
Another Major negotiated and currently tied 51st 👏🏽
Off to the airport now and a return to @EuropeanTour
Next stop #MadeinHimmerland 🛫 🛬🇩🇰
⛳🇺🇲🏌🏼♂️😎 pic.twitter.com/3ItrRlVBc7
— Bounce (@bouncespmgt) May 23, 2021
“To be honest I’m livid right now. I’m three-under after three holes. There’s just no way I should be shooting over par.
“I don’t care what golf course we’re on, that’s just unacceptable.”
The left-hander was fast out of the blocks with three birdies in his first three holes. But the sandy areas of the Ocean Course – they don’t play as bunkers – proved to be the problem.
“I felt I was playing good, just a few unlucky breaks,” he said. “There was a penalty drop out of plugged lie (at the fourth). Then on 17 I hit the sand on one bounce and it’s plugged again, this time on a downslope.
“I couldn’t move it forward, had to play sideways, and I make double. The frustrating thing is that the score’s out there to get. I’m just so disappointed how it ended.”
‘I have to deal with the disappointment’
It also meant he finished just outside the top 50, and he heads back across the Atlantic almost immediately.
“Right now all I want to do is go home. But we’re on to Denmark now (for the Made in Denmark event he finished second in two years ago).
“I have to deal with the disappointment, that’s golf, you take the good with the rough. Today was a rough one, but we just have to get on with it.”
Laird’s birdie at 18 completes a par 72
The other Scot in the field, Glasgow’s Martin Laird, completed a solid week with a par round of 72. A rare birdie at the 18th brought him in with a one-over total for the week of 289.
Laird, now based in Denver, birdied the second for a great start. But he then had four bogeys in a row from the third, hitting into the waste areas at the fourth and sixth.
The Scot steadied the shop with a birdie four at the long seventh. He got another shot back at the 13th, taking the bold line near the water and holing from just inside 20 feet for the birdie.
Laird needed to hole a tricky 10 footer for par at the 15th, but ground out pars down the tough closing stretch. At the last he hit his tee shot wide left into another waste area, but fired his approach from there to four feet and holed it.
The 37-year-old, who like MacIntyre has played all four rounds of both majors so far this season, finished in a tie for 27th.