PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland — A throng of reporters were waiting for Kyle Stanley at the conclusion of his third round at the Open Championship at Royal Portrush on Saturday — an unusual sight, considering his place on the bottom third of the leaderboard.
“I wonder what this is about,” he said wryly as he stepped up to the microphone. In case you need a refresher, Stanley made headlines overnight after his Friday playing partner, Bob MacIntyre, lashed out at Stanley over two instances of Stanley’s ball hitting spectators in which Stanley did not yell ‘Fore.’ In the second incident, the victim turned out to be MacIntyre’s caddie’s mother.
In his post-round comments, Stanley alleged that MacIntyre left out key details in his comments to the press, which unfairly characterized how things went down.
“I hit a ball right on 17 yesterday, you had a hard wind off the left,” Stanley said. “After I hit, several people on the tee box yelled ‘Fore.’ My two playing partners, my caddie, a couple of the volunteers — the marshals. Even had them signaling it was going right. Everyone to the right, they knew it was coming.”
Stanley said he didn’t understand what all the fuss was about.
“If [the ball didn’t hit MacIntyre’s caddie’s mother], I don’t think we’d be talking about it right now,” he said. “To me, it’s kind of a non-issue. I’m not really sure why he decided to make such an issue about it. I know [the ball] hit his caddie’s mom’s hand off the bounce, and that’s unfortunate, but as far as I’m concerned, a number of people yelled ‘Fore.’ He made the argument that since I hit the ball it should have come out of my mouth first. I guess I can see that. But it’s unfortunate it ended up the way it did. It certainly wan’t my intention to put anyone in harm’s way.”
Stanley wasn’t happy with MacIntyre’s version of events because he felt it left out key details.
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“When you talk about somebody playing within the boundaries of etiquette in golf, that’s kind of a touchy situation,” he said. “To paint somebody in a bad light, not playing within the etiquette of the game, you’ve got to be careful when you do that. When you tell your story you’ve got to make sure you add all the details. From what I read last night, [MacIntyre] didn’t do that. He’s a young player, I’ve been out here awhile. I certainly don’t feel the need to be schooled on the rules of golf or what to do when you hit a shot off-line.”
One reporter noted that Stanley didn’t seem very sorry. Had he apologized?
“I haven’t, no,” he said. “Our discussion was brief. If his issue was with me not being the first person to say ‘Fore,’ does he have a point, does he not have a point, that’s up to him. All I know is after I hit the ball it wasn’t but a couple seconds when several people on the tee box started shouting ‘Fore.’ I thought that was enough.”
Stanley also said that he didn’t realize MacIntyre’s caddie’s mother had been hit until he was told in the scoring trailer after the round had concluded.
“I went up there and the first thing that I asked everybody was if I hit anybody, and no one gave me an indication that I did. At the time I didn’t know,” he said.
For now, it looks like any lingering resentment between MacIntyre and Stanley will go unresolved. When asked if he would seek MacIntyre out today, Stanley’s answer was immediate.
“No.”
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