The Only Take On MacIntyre's Free Drop At The Scottish, Aberg's Sunday Scaries, And Ancer's All-Time Club Toss

Golf across the pond is just the best. If the Scottish Open served as a preview of what's to come at this week's Open Championship, we are in for quite the wild ride during the year's final major championship. Before we turn the page to Royal Troon, we have plenty to look back on from the week that was.

Robert MacIntyre was phenomenal on Sunday afternoon en route to capturing his national open, but it was drama on the Par 5 16th hole centered around a free drop in thigh-high grass that is the top talking point from the day. While plenty of folks have opinions on the situation that unfolded, there is only one correct take.

Heading into Sunday's final round of the Scottish Open, Ludvig Aberg was the man everyone was chasing, until he wasn't. A Sunday trend has found its way into the young Swede's game that's worth taking note of at this point, and it's not a great one.

Lastly, Sergio Garcia came out on top at LIV Andalucia, but his teammate Abe Ancer stole the show with an all-world club toss that is absolutely deserving of our undivided attention. Par Talk time.

It's Illogical To Blame Robert MacIntyre For His Drop At The Scottish Open

Does it make any sense at all for there to be a sprinkler head in the middle of tall, native grass on any golf course in Scotland? Absolutely not. Was it lame for Bob MacIntyre to get a free drop because he just so happened to be standing on the most bizarrely placed sprinkler ever seen? Sure, but it's not like MacIntyre put the sprinkler there himself.

For those who may have missed it, MacIntyre, who trailed Adam Scott by two shots at the time, pulled his tee shot well right on the Par 5 16th hole. After finding his ball in the nasty hay, the lefty took an aggressive practice swing about a foot to the right of his golf ball and cleared a large chunk of grass out of the way in the process.

The 27-year-old then took his stance close to the divot he had made and discovered that the front of one of his feet was positioned on a sprinkler head. As a rules official came to confirm it was in fact a sprinkler head which resulted in a free drop, CBS analyst Dottie Pepper noted that he only felt the sprinkler beneath him because he was wearing metal spikes on the front of his shoes.

MacIntyre went from barely being able to see his ball in the thick stuff to receiving a perfect lie with the drop. 

"It was just a lucky break. You use the rules to get advantage. You stand on a sprinkler, you’re due relief. That was just the one kiss I needed," he said during his post-round presser.

With the golf gods clearly on his side on Sunday, MacIntyre stepped up and hit his second shot to six feet and rolled in the eagle putt to tie things atop the leaderboard with two holes to play.

You can be mad at whoever the hell decided to put a sprinkler head there, and you can certainly be mad at the rule that led MacIntyre to take free relief, but you certainly can't be mad at the man himself.

At the end of the day, MacIntyre still had to hit the clutch shots he did down the stretch. 

He made a 40-footer for birdie on the Par 3 14th to get back into contention, made the eagle on 16 to tie for the lead, and then drained the walk-off winner on the 18th from 20 feet to earn the win.

MacIntyre did not shy from the fact that the Scottish Open was the one title he wanted. The Scot finished runner-up to Rory McIlroy in wild fashion a year ago, and then to come from behind and be on the right side of a 72nd-hole winner a year after the heartbreak is a moment for the ages.

Ludvig Aberg Isn't A Fan Of Sundays

Ludvig Aberg began Sunday's final round in Scotland with a two-shot cushion, but it felt like an even bigger margin given how solid he had played through 54 holes. Winning on the PGA Tour, however, is hard, even for the Swedish golfer who looks like he was constructed in a lab to hit golf balls and win tournaments.

On a day when conditions weren't anywhere close to being bad, maybe other than being a bit colder temperature wise, Aberg looked like a shell of himself en route to a final round three-over 73 and a T-4 finish. A bogey on the Par 5 third hole was a preview of the bad day that was in store for Aberg, who lost over 4.7 strokes to the field on Sunday in what was the second-worst round of his young PGA Tour career.

It would be incredibly unfair to say that 2024 has been a bad year for Aberg given that he's had a pair of second-place finishes and five more Top 10s in 15 starts, but Sunday has proven to be his nemesis over the past few months.

Dating back to the Valero Texas Open in April eight starts ago, Aberg has broken 70 on Sunday just one time doing so at Augusta National where he finished solo second. 

A missed cut at the PGA Championship paired with five straight final rounds of 70 or worse isn't an anomaly, it's very much a trend at this point. Aberg could buck that trend immediately given that his floor is so incredibly high, but it does leave you wondering the extent of his documented knee injury and how much he has left in the tank heading into the final stretch of the season.

Abe Ancer's Golf Club May Still Be Flying In The Air

If you happen to see some random object fly past you at any point today it may very well be one of Abraham Ancer's wedges.

There is nothing more relatable in golf than one of the best players in the world throwing a golf club so hard it leaves the frame of the screen, and Ancer delivered on that front in impeccable fashion during Sunday's final round on LIV Golf.

Ancer's Fireballs GC team was holding onto a one-shot lead on the team side of things with just two holes remaining when he flubbed a chip from a tight lie, resulting in one of his wedges leaving his hand in a similar speed to a Paul Skenes fastball.

The bad chip shot didn't end up costing the Fireballs anything as they were able to capture the LIV title in a playoff.

Outside the club toss, what was most impressive during Sunday's LIV action in Andalucia was the Fireballs winning team event while wearing yellow shorts and Sergio Garcia capturing the individual title on top of that.