Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre has a chance to give his dad quite the early Father’s Day gift.
With his father, Dougie, filling in as his caddie for the RBC Canadian Open, MacIntyre is 18 holes away from securing his first victory on the PGA Tour after firing a 4-under 66 in the third round on Saturday in Hamilton, Ontario.
Robert MacIntyre now sits at 14-under 196 for the tournament, four shots ahead of Ben Griffin (65 on Saturday), Canada’s Mackenzie Hughes (67) and Ryan Fox of New Zealand (70), who are all tied for second at Hamilton Golf & Country Club.
“Caddies are so valuable out here, especially on a golf course like this where it’s a lot of slopes. But when you’re playing decent, I feel like today especially, like whoever was caddying for me, I’ve got that most respect for them, whoever it is,” Robert MacIntyre said. “But my dad wants me to do well because we’re blood, you know what I mean, and there’s no other, there’s nothing other than pride and guts and what we’re trying to do.
“I mean, he’s been through thick and thin with me. He taught me how to play the game of golf until really I started working with a coach probably at about 14, 15.”
After playing bogey-free golf through his first two rounds, Robert MacIntyre struggled on the front nine on Saturday, opening with a bogey at the par-4 first before picking up two more at Nos. 8 and 9.
But following yet another bogey at No. 13, Robert MacIntyre caught fire, going birdie-birdie-birdie before sinking a 31-foot putt for eagle at the par-5 17th.
“That’s a tough tee shot,” Robert MacIntyre said of No. 17. “The bunkers, I’m not a short hitter, but I’m not the longest, so that right bunker is quite sneaky. When Joel (Dahmen) was hitting his third shot in, I seen a guy in green, and my dad asked me, ‘Where are you hitting this?’ And I said, ‘I’m trying to land it on that guy in the green.’
“I was never reaching him and then he moved on anyway, but it gave me a focused target down the left-hand side, because I knew if I hit it solid, I’m covering the left bunker. Yeah, just hit it as hard as I could and it came off perfect.”
Like Robert MacIntyre, Griffin and Fox have never won on the PGA Tour. Hughes is a two-time winner.
Griffin gave himself a chance to capture his first victory by collecting seven birdies against two bogeys on Saturday.
“All I can do is just try to make birdies and focus on myself,” Griffin said. “I missed a short eagle putt on 17, but it’s all good, I’ll have plenty of chances (Sunday) to make up for some of those missed shots.”
Fox was at 4 under for the day after an eagle at the par-5 fourth and a birdie at the par-4 fifth, but he didn’t card anything better than par the rest of the way, settling for four bogeys in the process.
Meanwhile, Hughes, a fan favorite who has been adored by spectators throughout the event, sank an 87-foot birdie putt at No. 4 despite missing the fairway on his tee shot.
“I saw a lot of familiar faces out there, a lot of ‘Go Mac,’ ‘Go Mac go’ or, ‘Mac, you’re the man’ or anything like that. I heard a lot of those, which is really cool,” Hughes said. “Anywhere else I’m not getting that and here I do, so it’s pretty neat.”
Englishman Tommy Fleetwood, whose bogey-free 6-under 64 matched the best score of the day, moved up to fifth place at 9-under 201. He is tied with Sam Burns (67), Trace Crowe (67) and Dahmen (69).
“I got off to a great start,” Fleetwood said. “The last three days I actually played the front nine really, really well, it was just the back nine I hadn’t capitalized on, and it hadn’t been great to me. But, yeah, played really nicely on that back nine and kept the good start going (Saturday).”
Fleetwood was the runner-up at last year’s RBC Canadian Open, losing to Canada’s Nick Taylor in a playoff. Taylor missed the cut this time around.
Victor Perez of France also posted a 64 to share low-round honors with Fleetwood. Perez is T9 with Englishman Aaron Rai, who notched a 65. The duo is six shots off the lead.
–Field Level Media
