Robert MacIntyre has the company of former Walker Cup opponent Cameron Champ for the opening two rounds of this week’s 103rd PGA Championship at Kiawah Island.
It will be the first time in just under four years MacIntyre and Champ will be on the same tee together since shaking hands in the 2017 Walker Cup on the final green at the Los Angeles Country Club.
Champ was in a star-spangled USA side that also included this week’s defending champion, Collin Morikawa along with his now fellow PGA Tour players in Doug Ghim, Maverick McNealy, Doc Redman, Scottie Scheffler and Will Zalatoris, who was brilliant runner-up in last month’s Masters.
The GB & I team were comprehensively beaten 7 to 19 and while the USA team won the war, MacIntyre won his own battle against Champ.
Four years ago – Robert MacIntyre and Cameron Champ rivals in the 2017 Walker Cup and now playing partners for the opening two rounds of the 2021 PGA Championship
The then 21-year-old Scot handed Champ a 6 & 4 thumping in the opening day Singles and then halved his Sunday Singles also against Champ.
Since then, Houston-based Champ has won twice on the PGA Tour, earning $US 5m in prize-money and produced a Majors career-high of T10th in last year’s PGA Championship behind Morikawa.
And while MacIntyre’s 50 places higher than Champ on the rankings as World No. 45 there’s two things the American enjoys that MacIntyre doesn’t.
The first is Champ’s married and he’s also got a tattoo of his grandparents favourite Bible verse, Proverbs 3:6 given it was his Vietnam veteran grandfather, Mack who got him into golf when aged just two.
MacIntyre said: “I’ve bumped into Cameron a couple of times and we’ll always have that Walker Cup connection and it’s the same as Connor (Syme) and myself having been team-mates on the GB & I team back in 2017.
“When I saw the draw, I thought to myself that it will be good to catch-up with Cameron as we had two good matches that week and we’ve not played together since then.
“I remember Cameron was hitting it so far heading into the Walker Cup, so I knew before I went out and played him, he would be long off the tee, so all I could do was play my own game and just hole the putts, because it was a long golf course.
“I didn’t play the morning foursomes so it was good to get that first point for our side in my against Cameron.
“We’ve since come a long way in the game. He’s won a couple of times on the PGA Tour and I’ve won on the European Tour, and we’re now playing in the majors but it will be the same this week as every week, and that’s just focussing on what you are doing.
“Collin’s (Morikawa) defending this week so he’s the first to win a major championship and that’s the goal of all us, to win out here and win also at the game’s highest level.
“So, that’s my goal this week”.
And MacIntyre is showing he’s a real traditionalist when it comes to the use of a rangefinder, given they have been approved for a first time this week in a major championship.
He said: “My rangefinder will be in the bag but I won’t be using it. Between Mikey (Thomson – caddy) and I we’ll work out the numbers.”
Joining MacIntyre and Champ will be European Tour-based American John Catlin, winner of this year’s Austrian Open, and with the group out in the fifth group of the day teeing-up from the 10th tee at 7.49am (Local time) 12.49pm (UK time)
Martin Laird, and contesting his first PGA Championship since 2017, is out six minutes later at 12.55pm but off the first tee.
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