Robert MacIntyre won the Scottish Open in epic fashion Sunday, thanks in part to a fortuitous ruling coming down the stretch. Getty Images As Robert MacIntyre watched his drive sail into the thick rough to the right of the 16th hole of the Renaissance Club, his chances of winning the Scottish Open looked doomed. With Adam Scott pacing the field two shots ahead, MacIntyre needed to make something happen — and the par-5 16th represented his best remaining chance.
If he didn’t gain ground on Scott at the final par-5, his chances of winning the title he craved most of all were next to zero. Once MacIntyre located his ball off the fairway, thing didn’t look promising. His ball was buried in the thick fescue, and he could hardly manage to make a backswing.
“I’m shouting and I’m swearing when I’m getting up to the ball because I know that that’s my chance to really make birdie coming in,” MacIntrye said. “I got over the ball, looked at it, thinking, ‘I’m in a bit of trouble here. Might manage to move it maybe a hundred yards.
'” MacIntyre took a step back to survey the situation. As he placed his Nike shoes on the ground, the break of a lifetime presented itself. “I just heard the clunk ,” MacIntyre said.
That “clunk” was the sound of metal hitting plastic. In this case, the metal was a spike protruding from the front of his Nike shoes; the plastic was a sprinkler head. “I was like, ‘No way — I’ve got a sprinkler underneath my foot,'” MacIn.