Robert MacIntyre might have got his dream win this weekend as he won the Scottish Open but his victory was not without controversy.
The popular Scot holed a superb putt on the 18th to hold off Adam Scott in second and win out in front of a raucous Scottish crowd.
For MacIntyre, who had admitted his dream was to win the Scottish Open, it was a full redemption arc after losing out to Rory McIlroy on the last in 2023.
However, while the win was celebrated by many and rightfully so, MacIntyre has had to deal with questions about a controversial drop on the 16th hole.
Having found the deep rough, MacIntyre remarkably stumbled across a sprinkler head buried deep in that rough and was suitably offered relief.
Some golf fans have suggested the decision was a bit of a bad one.
However, Golf Channel pundit Jim Gallagher has backed MacIntyre, insisting the Scot did nothing wrong, and merely took advantage of the rules.
Golf pundit backs Robert MacIntyre after his controversial 16th hole drop at the Scottish Open
Speaking about the incident for the Golf Channel, Gallagher spoke about what exactly had happened and insisted MacIntyre didn’t do anything untoward.
“The biggest break he got was on the par five. When he’s taking the practice shot, look how thick this is.
“This shot is just going to be one where he’s just going to have to get out,” Gallagher said. “
“But here, he is walking and he feels it. He has the metal spikes and talks with the official. You don’t see sprinkler heads in the rough in Scotland very often! In this case it was.
“He didn’t do anything wrong, he didn’t know it was there, he gets the free drop. Now look at this lie, compared to the chip out lie he was going to have, he has got this lie here where he has a seven iron.”
MacIntyre ultimately made the putt for eagle and then went on to reel Adam Scott in and sink a fine putt on 18 to take the victory.
Whether he can follow it up at Royal Troon this week, remains to be seen.
But if he doesn’t win again in his career, MacIntyre would probably retire a happy man.
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