Weekly PGA Recap: MacIntyre Catches Fire

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.

The tens of thousands of fans lining the fairways of Hamilton Golf & Country Club all week wanted a repeat of last year, when a Canadian won the RBC Canadian Open for the first time in almost seven decades. They hadn't seen native sons go back-to-back in more than a century.

They pulled out all the stops, setting up the 13th hole as "The Rink" to create a raucous hockey atmosphere -- complete with an organist -- and even breaking into renditions of "O, Canada."

For a sliver in time early on Sunday, it looked as if they could get their wish. But Hamilton native Mackenzie Hughes' foray into a tie for the lead was short-lived.

Is it any consolation that the trophy stayed under the umbrella of the former British Empire? Probably not. (Yeah, we know that's a helluva reach. But we had to transition.)

The victory by Scotland's Robert MacIntyre still created a wonderful narrative for any true golf fan: He won with his father by his side all week as his caddie.

"Bobby Mac" survived some tense moments down the stretch to fend off upstart Ben Griffin by a single stroke to capture the 113th playing of the Canadian Open. Corey Conners ended up as top Canuck in solo sixth, with Hughes fading into a tie for seventh.

MacIntyre, the European Ryder Cupper, was among 10 DP World Tour players to qualify for the PGA Tour this season. He is the second to win, behind Matthieu Pavon at the Farmers Insurance Open.

"Goose bumps. It's incredible," MacIntyre told CBS' Amanda Balionis. "It's a dream of mine to play golf for a living. It's been a dream of mine to win on the PGA TOUR, when I got my PGA TOUR card, and I just can't believe I done it with my dad on the bag. The guy's taught me the way I play golf. I mean, I don't, I never make it easy, and he said that, when I was 16 or 17, he's going, 'You never make this easy.' And that's the way I play golf, I play it with the heart on the sleeve, and we got a hell of a fight in the two of us and I just can't believe that I've won on the PGA TOUR, to be honest."

MacIntyre's first PGA Tour win could not have come at a better time, with two Signature Events and a major coming in the next three weeks: Memorial, U.S. Open, Travelers. It almost came last year, in of all tournaments the Scottish Open. But Rory McIlroy ended up stealing the show and the storybook ending.

The two-time DP World Tour winner moved from 76th in the world rankings to a career-best 39th -- his previous high was 42nd -- and that will get him into the U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 in two weeks. The top 60 in the OWGR as of next Monday automatically qualify. That means he can pull out of final U.S. Open qualifying, which was set for numerous sites around the United States on Monday in the so-called "golf's longest day."

Pinehurst will put a premium on chipping and putting, and MacIntyre put on a clinic this past week. He ranked eighth in the field in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and first in SG: Putting. But "first" doesn't quite tell the story -- he gained more than 11 strokes on the field.

Nobody ever sees such a putting performance coming in advance, but the 27-year-old MacIntyre had been trending in the right direction the past few weeks. After missing the cut in six of his first 12 starts as a PGA Tour member, he tied for 13th at Myrtle Beach and for eighth at the PGA Championship.

That bodes well for the next few weeks, except for the fact that he's played six weeks in a row and wasn't expecting to play this week, much less the next three.

The only other downside to the win was that his dad is now off the bag. Dougie MacIntyre was, at most, a two-time replacement after MacIntyre parted ways with regular looper Scott Carmichael, But now the reprisal with Dad at U.S. Open qualifying won't happen, because qualifying is no longer required. But at least he'll get paid.

"Yeah, he'll do all right," the younger MacIntyre said. "I think I've got to get rid of some money just now for tax reasons. But he'll do nicely out of it. He deserves it. Look, he was a caddie for the week, but at the end of the day, he's my dad and it was just -- the emotion that you seen at the end, it was just almost out of sheer disbelieve that we done it with him on the bag. I mean, the amount of work that the caddies do week-in, week-out, which is unbelievable help. And then I just do it with my dad, he's got a yardage book -- I mean, he lost the yardage book, one, because he couldn't get in on Monday, and he didn't have credentials. I wouldn't have thought it."

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Ben Griffin
Griffin will join MacIntyre in the Memorial field this week. His solo second, his best-ever finish on the PGA Tour (he was T2 at the 2023 Sanderson Farms), moved him into the Aon Swing 5. The 28-year-old North Carolinian was already a top-20 putter on Tour, and for the week in Canada he ranked first in SG: Approach.

Victor Perez
The Frenchman, another DP World Tour grad, also gets into the Memorial via the Aon Swing 5 after he finished solo third. While Perez had a good week, he hadn't been having a great rookie season on the PGA Tour. This podium finish moved him into playoff position if the postseason started today, but he'll need a lot more than one week to be there come August.

Rory McIlroy
A multiple Canadian Open winner, McIlroy continued his recent surge with a tie for fourth. Dare we say he's peaking at just the right time on the PGA Tour schedule?

Tom Kim
Kim had not been able to get untracked this season. He entered the week 66th in the point standings and hadn't had a top-10 in any of his 15 starts. Now he has one after tying for fourth. Of course, this doesn't mean he is now untracked, only that he had one good week.

Corey Conners
You'd think that in a week Conners ranked seventh in the field in SG: Putting, as well as his customary seventh in SG: Approach, he could've won. He was even quite good around the green, where he's also normally terrible. Conners probably played better than he scored, which was terribly unfortunate this week for the Canadian and the fans.

Mackenzie Hughes
Hughes is a Hamilton native and was probably the crowd favorite among all the Canadians. He fired out of the gate on Sunday with birdies on Nos. 2, 3 and 4. But he bogeyed No. 5 and three more holes the rest of the way while registering only one more birdie. It's surely little consolation that he and Conners give Canada two top-10s in its national championship for the first time since 2015.

Maverick McNealy
McNealy has been good in all areas this season except approach. Of course, that's a pretty bad area to be bad at. This week, he ranked 24th in the field and tied for seventh. He's not in the Memorial field and not yet in the U.S. Open or Travelers, so he could be idle for quite some time as he tries to build momentum off this good showing. He'll be attempting to qualify for Pinehurst on Monday at Cherry Hill in Ontario.

Ryan Fox
Yet another DP world Tour grad, Fox led for a portion of the week during what has been a poor debut PGA Tour season. He tied for seventh and is now 58th in the OWGR -- good enough to get into the U.S. Open if that holds come next Monday. Trouble is, that's a big game to take, so he too will attempt to qualify for Pinehurst on Monday.
 
Sam Burns
Burns tied for 10th to register his first top-10 since February. He remains way too inconsistent for us to confidently back.

Chandler Phillips
One of our deep value picks at $5,900, Phillips tied for 10th. It comes a week after a T12 at the Charles Schwab. But like with a lot of secondary players on Tour, he will be idle for the next three weeks. He already attempted to qualify for the U.S. Open in Dallas and missed out.

Keith Mitchell
Mitchell entered the week ranked seventh in SG: Off-the-Tee and 11th in SG: Approach. Great, great numbers. Yet he had done no better all season than two T9s because of terrible putting. This week, he putted decently – 39th in the field – but he slumped to 26th in Approach. He tied for 10th.

Stewart Cink
The 51-year-old hybrid PGA Tour/Champions Tour player tied for 27th. Cink will be in final U.S. Open qualifying in nearby Cherry Hills in Ontario on Monday.

Adam Scott
Scott tied for 42nd to move to 60th in the OWGR -- right on the U.S. Open cut line. But that doesn't take effect till next Monday, and Scott is not playing the Memorial. So he will head to the Open's Springfield, Ohio, qualifying site in a bid to play in his 92nd straight major.

MISSED CUTS

Cameron Young, Mike Weir, Alex Noren, Sahith Theegala, Doug Ghim. For Young and Theegala, they aren't going to make every cut. It's just an off-week. … Noren was one of the most highly owner players in DFS and his MC wrecked a lot of lineups. Not of consolation to gamers, but he was given the final sponsor invite into the upcoming Memorial. … Weir, the International Presidents Cup captain, made a valiant effort in his native Canada but came up just short. … Ghim withdrew before the start of the second round with an undisclosed illness.