Bob MacIntyre loses the U.S. Open, but his gesture in failure tells the story
James Colgan
Robert MacIntyre celebrated his U.S. Open loss on Sunday.
NBC
Oakmont, Pennsylvania – Robert MacIntyre knew it before he knew how.
He fought 72 holes in our open 72 holes, fighting through slaughtering heat and driving rain, through birds and bogeys, through hellish roughness and outrageous lies. However, after four days of cruel days in Oakmont, he fell.
“I’ve been saying all One week, he said, after a 69-time final round briefly made him the club’s leader. “The par level has always been my score.”
Currently, McIntyre may convince himself that he is the cliff of his first major champion. The leader on the golf course still behind him folded like a cheap cardboard box in the Sunday monsoon, scattered with a pile of bogey roughness and mud. McIntyre just finished his only round of the final Seventeen We open the group on Sunday.
However, whenever McIntyre looks up at the rankings, the par score of a week is 1-1. Know. So much that when someone finally asked him where to watch JJ Spaun and other American leaders, he smiled as they dug out the last hill towards the clubhouse.
“I probably won’t.”
Of course, he had to watch it. He is the club leader of a big tournament. He has no choice. So Robert MacIntyre entered Oakmont’s plank scorer room and found a seat in a folding chair, staring at the TV screen as JJ Spaun stared at his life-long putter.
Just a few seconds later, Spaun’s 72-hole 60-foot somehow found the bottom of the hole – driving the dagger through Macintyre’s American open dream. It was only a few seconds until NBC flashed Macintyre’s face to millions as he struggled to get into the fact that he was shy.
Maybe it’s because MacIntyre knows he’s been a shot. Perhaps it was because his dream of trying not to let America open up get too far. Maybe it was because he was as surprised as the rest of us. But when the putter fell down and the camera grabbed him, Robert MacIntyre did something funny: He cheered.
The applause lasted for five seconds, adding a craziest laughter and a word of response-“Wow. ” – But this happened suddenly, except sincerity. Spaun interrupted Macintyre’s heart, but in a strange way, he also mitigated the blow.
“He won the golf tournament,” McIntyre told golf.com Nearly half an hour later. “Fair play. I mean, he dreams. I’ve dreamed. Everyone dreams about that moment. Let him pour into the winning putt, I mean, there’s nothing I can do. Fair play.”
MacIntyre disappeared into the locker room for a long time after Spaun’s putt fell, but he got a little lighter when he reappeared outside the Tudor Style Clubhouse in Green, Oakmont. His family flanked his sides on both sides, carrying his golf gear, and had no shortage of emotional bags for the day.
Just 11 months ago, the same group followed MacIntyre in another Tudor-style clubhouse after the National Open. It was at the Scottish Renaissance Club in July 2024, McIntyre stood on the other side of fate, poured over a 22-foot curling, breaking other people’s dreams and winning the Scottish victory in front of a fanatical crowd.
“This is the opportunity you want, accept,” MacIntyre stood on that life-changing putter and disappeared into the celebration that included multiple crying family members. In June 2025, he imagined Spaun telling himself something similar.
“I mean, I’ve done that,” he said Sunday night in Oakmont’s parking lot, unable to kill the smile. “You just want someone win Golf Championship. ”
Then McIntyre’s celebration was more obvious, but now his celebrations were more obvious. There will be no overnight parties, no winner’s press conference. His Sunday effort trophy is a brown cardboard box: a new golf bag.
However, as he disappeared into the middle of the night, it was hard to see romantic qualities on Bob Macintyre’s golf course. He excels when golf is the toughest and the lights are the brightest. His best is not enough, a smile appeared on his face.
“Fair play, JJ,” McIntyre said in the parking lot.
You know what he means.
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James Colgan
Golf.comEdit
James Colgan is Golf news and writes stories for websites and magazines. He manages the media verticals of popular microphones, golf, and leverages his camera experience on the brand platform. Before joining golf, James graduated from Syracuse University, during which time he was a caddie scholarship recipient (and Astute looper) from Long Island, where he came from. He can be contacted at james.colgan@golf.com.
