'Come on' - Bob MacIntyre vents at US Open official over issue in final round

The conversation took place at the side of the green at the par-3 11th after both MacIntyre and his playing partner, reigning Genesis Scottish Open champion Chris Gotterup, had landed their tee shots short of the hole only to end up side-by-side down the slope at the back of the green.

Gotterup ended up making a bogey and MacIntyre would almost certainly have done likewise if his over-hit chip hadn’t clattered into the flagstick and stopped right next to the hole, leaving him with a tap in.

As Gotterup was finishing the hole, the Scot went over to a rules official who was positioned at the side of the green and, though it wasn’t heated at all, it was clear that MacIntyre was making his feelings known about something that had irked him.

“I mean, the minute this goes out I am going to get bad rep for it,” he said, smiling, after being asked about it at the end of his closing circuit, “but they’ve put different amounts of water on each green. They have different softness. I mean, Chris has hit a beautiful shot right behind me into 11 and it’s taken one hop and run off the green.

“I’ve watched mine from the tee and it’s taken two bounces then gone over the green. Four holes prior, I’m standing on the seventh tee and I’m watching Joaquin Niemann hit into the second hole and he’s pitched it round about the pin and spun it off the front of the green. Come on.”

Returning to what had happened on the 11th, the 29-year-old added: “Yeah, it was a rules official I spoke to just to ask him. I said to him ‘look, at The Open Championship, they tell you how much firmer the golf course has got. Here, they told us they were going to syringe the greens the first two days.

“I mean, most weeks you don’t know how firm it is, but these golf courses can change in an absolute heartbeat. For instance, I hit an 8-iron into the 17th hole, coming down out the left, and it stopped within two yards. I’ve hit a 9-iron into 11 and it’s bounced twice on the green and went over the green. I mean, it’s only getting firmer on that 11th green.

“Yeah, I was pissed off and thought I am going to go and ask the question. I don’t normally do that, but I just thought ‘you know what, I am going to ask him why’. He just gave me the answer I thought I was going to get, to be honest. But I was kind of venting a little bit.”

MacIntyre was asked by an American journalist if The R&A used the pin sheet to detail green watering for The Open. “It’s not like that,” he insisted. “I think at The Open they call it gravities. It’s a bit of detail.

“I mean, we are still playing golf here. But I just feel the inconsistency of it isn’t right. Even 18 is like concrete. I get that different holes are exposed, but 18 is down in a valley and the water is holding there. But it was brick hard. Yeah, I guess I am probably moaning a little too much for sitting 43rd place or whatever.”

MacIntyre, last year’s runner-up at Oakmont, was speaking after signing off on Long Island with a level-par 70 to finish with a seven-over-par total. Two over for the day after 12, the left-hander found his stride as he birdied the 13th, 16th and 17th before being disappointed to give one of those shots back at the last.

“I’ve been playing well and I should be right in the golf tournament, to be honest,” he said. “With four holes to go on Friday, I was right where I wanted to be on level par. Then, after 36 holes, I’m sitting there going ‘well, I should be going home now’.

“After thinking we did some good work in Canada (where he handed himself a timely boost by finishing joint-15th at TPC Toronto), I felt I came here and controlled the golf ball well. Yeah, just had a real problem with three or four holes there on Friday and that’s put me out of the golf tournament.

“Then, pegging it up yesterday, I honestly thought when I teed off that, if I break 80 (in the toughest conditions of the week) here, it is going to be a good score. Yeah, it was difficult.

“Today, I was trying to break par there, but it’s now just a matter of moving onto next week (when he is playing in the Travelers Championship, the PGA Tour’s latest Signature Event, in Connecticut).”