When MacIntye Met ‘Fatty’ – A Day Out At The Australian PGA Pro-Am

2 years ago by Comments Off on When MacIntye Met ‘Fatty’ – A Day Out At The Australian PGA Pro-Am

We know Ryder Cup winning hero Robert MacIntyre dearly loves his Shinty – the sticks and ball game they play in the Scottish Highlands.

Aussie-born Paul ‘Fatty’ Vautin is famous for is career in rugby league.  It’s the biggest winner sport in the states of New South Wales and Queensland.

In his younger days ‘Fatty’ was a true redhead though nowadays, at age 64 there’s more grey than red.

He acquired the nickname ‘Fatty’ not because has was overweight.  It was 1979 when Vautin had just joined the Manly Warringah rugby league team and while walking walking around their home ground in the northern suburbs of Sydney with the then club chairman, a former player commented to the chairman: ‘Who’s that fatty?’ beside you and the nick-name had forever stuck.

 

Vautin nowadays is a living legend.

He is Queensland-born and got the big rugby league career break in 1978 and remained in the game at the highest level to 1991, a career capped eight-years after being called ‘Fatty’ in captaining Manly to premiership winning honours in 1987.

A year earlier, Vautin was a member of the Australian Kangaroos side that travelled to England and France.

Vautin also spent the 1988/89 season playing with St. Helens and being appointed the team’s captain, however his stint with the famed England club ended unceremoniously losing the Challenge Cup final at Wembley and without his team scoring in a 0-27 whitewash against champions Wigan,

Since his coaching days, Vautin has gained enormous success first as a TV reporter on the game while he was the main host of The Footy Show that ran on Australian television (New South Wales & Queensland being the major rugby league Australian states) from 1994 to 2018.  Vautin was host for all but the final year.

It was an all rugby league trio joining MacIntyre with Vauntin, who plays off a single digit handicap being also accompanied by local Brisbane Bronco players Adam Reynolds and Corey Oates, and with the duo no doubt still hurting in losing just seven weeks ago the 2023 premiership final to Sydney rivals, the Penrith Panthers.

And the visiting Scot spoke of his delight in leading his all-Australian, all-rugby league players on Fortinet Australian PGA Championship pro-am day.

“It was good fun. Fatty kept us entertained all the way round”, said MacIntyre.

“He was in good humour. It was great to spend time with other players, other sportsmen and a way of life just to kind of get the background and see the differences in all our sports”.

And MacIntyre also asked if he was aware of Brisbane’s loss in the premiership.

“That was one of the last things that was mentioned in the whole day”, he said smiling.

“So I play a sport back home called shinty, a team sport. I was like what happened, and to be honest with you, I said to them, was it a bit of a mentality thing, like if we’re 2-0 up in a tough game of shinty, the easiest thing to do is sit back and defend and you invite pressure and then if you crack, you just leak goals.

“They didn’t say that, but for me, I’m guessing that’s kind of what happened. I didn’t see the game, but I’m guessing that’s the sort of thing that happened”.

Vautin, and a member at The Grange Golf Club on the Queensland Gold Coast, and about an hour’s drive south of Brisbane, spoke to Golf Australia of the delight in playing alongside the new PGA Tour member.

“The big difference between us who love golf, whether we play off six, or 15 or 22, is the sound that the ball makes off the club,” Vautin says.

“When Robert hits the ball it’s a completely different sound to what we hit. He’s flushing every drive and the sound of it is fantastic … he’s hitting it 60-70 metres past us.”

Says Vautin with a laugh: “Robert asks me, ‘Is it right people are calling you ‘Fatty’? ‘Why do they call you Fatty? Because you’re not fat, man.’

“I said ‘You want me to show you why?’ And he took a bit of humour in that.

“But no, he’s a good fella. He’s no.56 in the world, he’s 27. The world’s at his feet. He’s playing with Cameron Smith and Min Woo Lee tomorrow. He said he hasn’t met either of them or played with them.”

 



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