An unrepentant Kyle Stanley has fired back at Bob MacIntyre after being castigated by his playing partner following the second round at the Open. MacIntyre was furious after a stray tee shot from Stanley at the 17th hit and bruised a hand of his caddie’s mother. MacIntyre’s ire stemmed from his American partner not shouting fore. The Scot said there were “harsh words” at the end of the round, adding: “He’s the only one I’ve seen do that. It was straight into the crowd. And we’re expecting him to shout fore. She’s all right, I think, but it’s not what you want.”
Speaking after a third round of 73, Stanley insisted he did not know anybody had been injured at the time of the incident. “Several people on the tee box yelled fore,” he said. “My two playing partners, my caddie, a couple of the volunteers or the marshals, even had them signalling it was going right. I mean, everyone to the right of that ball, they knew it was coming.
“So 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 it hit his caddie’s mum’s hands 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 that it maybe should have come out of my mouth first. I guess I can see that.”
When it was repeated that his shot hit MacIntyre’s caddie’s mother, Stanley said: “If it didn’t, I don’t think we’d be talking about it right now.
“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 of seconds when several people on the tee box started shouting fore.
“I thought that was enough. My intention was to never do anything negative or put anybody in the gallery in harm’s way.”
