New RBC Canadian Open champion Robert MacIntyre was highly criticial of an annoying CBS Sports drone on route to his maiden PGA Tour triumph.
MacIntyre, 27, became the first Scottish-born winner of the prestig0us Canadian title in 90-years holding-on to capture the trophy in foggy Scottish-like weather on the host Hamilton Country Club course.
And while praising the efforts of his father, Dougie as his stand-in caddy MacIntyre was far from pleased with a CBS Sports drone that he heavily criticised on his march to victory, so much so, he called a PGA Tour rules official to have the annoying drone grounded.
“If it didn’t go away, I was going to start throwing my clubs at it”, said MacIntyre during his post-round championship news conference.
HIGHLY CRITICAL @CBSSports DRONE ….
New @RBCCanadianOpen @robert1lefty @GlencruittenG @ArnoldClark lambasts drone
Read: https://t.co/odzEA35cc4
— Golf & Science News (@TOURMISS) June 3, 2024
“That’s how annoyed I was getting. I was standing on the drivable par-4 and when everyone’s silent, all you can hear is a — I mean, it’s a big wasp. I asked ’em to get rid of it.”
The annoying drone had began on Saturday when MacIntyre backed off from a shot as one buzzed over his head. It’s not the first time the flying cameras have caused problems on the course, and Macintyre is getting fed up.
In true Scottish fashion, he was picked up by standard course level cameras saying: “I’m gonna give him one last chance before I go mental at him.”
However, it was worst on Sunday with the drone following MacIntyre throughout the round.
“I’m in a bunker, and sure enough everyone’s silent and all I hear is this buzzing again”, said MacIntyre.
“I look up and here it is. And, I don’t know, one of the guys must have been getting sick of me. I just kept turning to him because I knew he was the man to go to when that drone starts annoying me because yesterday on 18 it was the same guy. And he just radioed, ‘Get that drone out of here.’”
MacIntyre could be heard saying, “I told you once, I’m not going to tell you again.”
On the CBS broadcast, Jim Nantz, Dottie Pepper, who was following the group, and Trevor Immelman understood that it was disturbing MacIntyre but pushed back that drones are now part of the coverage.
“They were horrible,” MacIntyre’s father, Dougie, who served as his caddie this week, said. “He was getting a wee bit agitated. It takes your concentration. In the back of the head you’re thinking about the buzzing so he called the rules official over.”
That occurred at the ninth fairway when MacIntyre was preparing to hit a wedge to the green.
“All I can hear is this drone again, and I had had enough at that point. Rules official from the R&A was just beside us, and I brought her over, and I said, ‘Look, this drone needs to get out of here. I’ve said it three times now. The drone is annoying me, the drone’s putting me off, it’s too close.’ I mean, it’s easier when the blimps up there, but it’s obviously the weather and stuff and it’s just, I had a job to do, and anything that was getting in my way was getting told to get out of the way. I was focused today and that drone was doing my head, and so I told it to get away.”
