In victory, Rory McIlroy apologized. Here’s why he made a meaningful gesture

Rory McIlroy discovered Robert MacIntyre. He wanted to offer him one thing.

In fact, MacIntyre wished extra. He practically had all of it really. He was going to win.

He was going to win!

He was going to win after the rally. This was one thing. Down 5 on Sunday on the Renaissance Membership, MacIntyre went to work throughout the ultimate spherical of the Scottish Open. He birdied 3. And 6. He eagled 10. He birdied 14 and 15, although bogeyed 16. However magic was coming.

He was going to win after the shot. The shot. This was a magnificence, although the one which had preceded it on the par-4 18th — a tee shot very left — was ugly. However MacIntyre’s ball had discovered trampled-down grass, and he maneuvered a fairway metal by way of a stiff wind and throughout 213 yards, to 1 yard. He birdied from there. He was your chief. He double fist-pumped. He waved to followers. They cheered again. He broke down on his solution to the scoring tent.

He was going to win on his house soil. Bobby Mac grew up about 4 hours west of North Berwick, in Oban, and victory would have been — really, we’ll let him describe that.

“I needed to take a minute coming off 18. I imply, that’s why I play this sport. That’s why I’m within the Scottish Open, and if not the Open, the Scottish Open shall be up there with the occasion I wish to play for the remainder of my life. It’s one I’ve dreamed of profitable since I watched at house, and I assumed right this moment coming down, as soon as I birdied 18, I assumed, this could be the one.”

He was going to win after final week, when he had led within the ultimate spherical of the DP World Tour’s Made in Himmerland occasion, then triple-bogeyed with six holes to play. That damage. “I imply, final week, I felt like I had two palms on the trophy and I let it go,” he mentioned. On Sunday, he was going to win and earn his PGA Tour card. He was going to win and made a strong case for the Ryder Cup, although that also could have occurred.

And MacIntyre was nonetheless profitable, till McIlroy caught one to 4 ft on the par-3 seventeenth and birdied to drag even. They usually had been nonetheless even, till McIlroy labored a 2-iron to 10 ft on 18 — “probably the greatest pictures I’ll hit in my profession” — and birdied to win.

And MacIntyre didn’t win.

So McIlroy discovered MacIntyre.

Maybe what was to return was only a gesture of sportsmanship. Maybe McIlroy noticed one thing of himself in him. This has been a 12 months for the Northern Irishman. Nearly to the day final July, on the Open Championship at St. Andrews, it was he who was going to win, only to not. That prolonged his drought of years and not using a main victory to eight, and may he fall quick subsequent week at this 12 months’s Open, will probably be 9. Of us argue that’s too lengthy. Shoot, he doesn’t dispute that. There’s extra, in fact. There’s that LIV Golf-Saudi PIF-PGA Tour factor. Right here, simply know that after singing the praises of the Tour in its combat versus Saudi-backed LIV, just for the Tour to show round and make a deal to be Saudi-backed itself, McIlroy believes he’s “a sacrificial lamb.”

“I feel they had been making an attempt to do what was — they had been making an attempt to do what was proper for the Tour, which in flip means what’s proper for the gamers on that tour,” McIlroy mentioned Thursday to reporters on the grounds. “I feel I learn a quote, they had been negotiating their survival, proper.  So I feel that’s a particularly reasonable factor for a enterprise to do.

“I feel I’m apathetic towards all of the noise round it. Once more, so long as the tournaments that I play carry on present, I’ll be very completely happy to play them and be knowledgeable golfer and attempt to get a bit bit nearer every single day to try to grasp my craft.”

Should you’re a fan, you possibly really feel for him.

With that, McIlroy wanted to offer MacIntyre one thing.

An apology. Two phrases. They had been overheard by Golfweek’s Adam Schupak.

“I’m sorry.”

They talked for a pair seconds. They hugged. They went their very own methods.

MacIntyre was going to win.

Then McIlroy did.

Editor’s be aware: To learn the whole account from Golfweek’s Adam Schupak, please click here.

Golf Journal

Subscribe To The Journal

Subscribe

Nick Piastowski

Golf.com Editor

Nick Piastowski is a Senior Editor at Golf.com and Golf Journal. In his function, he’s liable for enhancing, writing and creating tales throughout the golf area. And when he’s not writing about methods to hit the golf ball farther and straighter, the Milwaukee native might be taking part in the sport, hitting the ball left, proper and quick, and consuming a chilly beer to scrub away his rating. You may attain out to him about any of those matters — his tales, his recreation or his beers — at nick.piastowski@golf.com.