Robert MacIntyre couldn’t have asked for a better three-hole finish at the DP World Tour big-money BMW PGA Championship Sunday. Birdie. Birdie. Eagle. Wentworth’s four-under blitz moved MacIntyre to three-under for the round and 13-under for the week, good for a share of 10th place. However, after signing his card, the combustible Scotsman wasn’t exactly sunshine and rainbows.
He had a complaint to air, and he did, to The Scotsmanby Martin Dempster.
MacIntyre, who is ranked 19th in the world, was still annoyed by what he described as a “ridiculous” decision on the 11th, a par-4 on which his drive had found the left center of the fairway. When MacIntyre got to his ball, he found it plugged — or at least semi-plugged — into another player’s pitch mark. The good news for MacIntyre was that a rule change in 2026 apparently meant that he would have to be relieved of his submerged ball. The bad news: Model Local Rule F-2 include an exception: If an umpire determines that the pitch mark has been repaired in some way, the player does not receive relief.
The rule continues, “A pitch mark has been repaired in some way when it has been pressed or subjected to any form of repair by someone whether deliberate or incidental, and regardless of the quality or completeness of the repair. Examples of repaired in some way include when a pitch-mark has been pressed with a stick or a foot, someone has tried to repair it with another device, or in an area that is in a pitch area. mower has passed or has been otherwise prepared by the personnel of maintenance A pitch-mark that has been repaired in some way can and often does result in a visible indentation from which there is no relief under this Local Rule.
In the case of MacIntyre, an officer evaluated the lie and determined that the mark had been repaired. Ergo, no free relief. “It was in our opinion a partially repaired pitchmark,” said DP World Tour chief referee Mark Litton. said The Scotsman.
MacIntyre was out of luck, but he was not short of exasperation.
“What’s the point of changing the rules for a plugged ball when I split the fairway on 11?” he said The Scotsman. “The ball was thrown into a pitch mark, but, because the pitch mark was deemed to have been stopped, cut or whatever it was, I got no relief.
He added: “I also had a second opinion. But, because the sides of the pitch mark were not standing and it looked like someone had settled on it or a buggy had passed over it. I had no relief.
“The rule is absolutely ridiculous. It all depends on the decision of the umpire. It looked like it was blocked and that pitch mark could have happened this morning.”
From his unfortunate lie 96 yards from the green, MacIntyre sent his approach into the rough, dropped his first chip attempt into the long grass and then needed two more shots to chip in for what was his second consecutive bogey on the inside nine. On the next hole, the par-5 12th — a hole he had birdied and birdied earlier in the week — MacIntyre made another bogey to drop to one for his round.
Of his misfortune at 11, MacIntyre later said he “just lost the plot from there. Yeah, I know my attitude really needs to improve, but I’m absolutely fizzing with the ruling.”
Government bodies are constantly looking for ways to simplify the rules and eliminate confusion, complication and gray areas. In the case of embedded balls, MacIntyre said there is still more policy work to be done.
“They need to simplify the rules,” he said The Scotsman. “If it’s in a plug brand, it’s in a plug brand.”
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