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Silence can sometimes be louder than any outburst, and at Augusta National Golf Club, that silence from 2x PGA Tour winner Robert MacIntyre is becoming impossible to ignore. The opening day of the 2026 Masters couldn’t have gotten any worse for the Scottish professional. And to add to those troubles, the second day was no good either, as he has now decided to skip his media duties.
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“Bob MacIntyre has declined media for the second day in a row here. He faced reprimand for his conduct on Thursday and misses the cut after following his 80 with a 71,” Ben Parsons of the Today’s Golfer reported in an X post.
Bob MacIntyre has declined media for the second day in a row here. He faced reprimand for his conduct on Thursday and misses the cut after following his 80 with a 71.
— Ben Parsons (@_benparsons) April 10, 2026
Robert “Bob” MacIntyre hit an opening round of 8-over 80. He was a whopping 13 shots behind co-leaders Sam Burns and Rory McIlroy. His round included just one birdie on hole 3. But that was the last good thing of his round. He followed it with bogeys on the 5th and 6th and a double bogey on the 9th to finish the front nine 3-over.
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As the back nine started, he was clearly frustrated. On the 12th hole, he went, “Jesus f***!” The frustration kept mounting, reaching a boiling point on the 15th.
The Scot hit 2 times in the pool on the 15th. This resulted in a quadruple bogey on the par-5 hole. When the ball went into the water the second time, Robert MacIntyre responded by flipping his middle finger in front of the camera. He was even reprimanded by the Masters officials for the incident.
Despite entering the event as one of the favorites and being the World No. 8, things didn’t go in his favor. After completing the first round, he was so animated that he didn’t speak to the media. In fact, he didn’t even communicate with his family, who were there at Augusta National to support him.
Now, he has followed that first round with a 1-under 71. His second round included five birdies on holes 3, 4, 7, 12, and 15. Besides that, there were two bogeys on holes 11 and 16, and a double bogey on the 1st hole. While better than the first round, it was not enough to help him make the cut.
After the initial two rounds, Robert MacIntyre finished 7-over at T64. And once again, he decided not to speak to the media. There’s no word yet, but Augusta National and the PGA Tour might be looking into it, as there are strict player conduct policies in place.
While many see the action as not appropriate, he is not the first to skip his media duties after a bad round.
PGA Tour pros who skipped media duties
While Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters, things didn’t go well for him throughout. After the disastrous stretch in the final holes of his opening round, the defending champion declined to speak to the media. He walked straight to the practice area. This even led to social media backlash. Fans and the media called the act “childish” and “unbecoming of the face of the Tour.”
Surprisingly, he did the same at the 2025 BMW PGA Championship, too. Just like Robert MacIntyre, Rory McIlroy skipped post-round media until the final round. Finishing T47, the 5x major champion later explained that his driver was ruled nonconforming by the United States Golf Association earlier that week, making it ineligible for use during the tournament.
Besides Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa skipped the press conference after heartbreakingly losing the Arnold Palmer Invitational. Despite being in the final pairings, he declined to comment to the media. He stood by his decision and said he doesn’t owe anyone an answer.
Shane Lowry, Scottie Scheffler, and even Tiger Woods have declined to speak to the media after poor rounds. However, Robert MacIntyre has done it on two consecutive days. And he has done it at Augusta National, which carries even more weight. Fans will have to wait to see if Augusta National takes any action against it or lets it slide by.
Written by
Edited by
Shreya Singh