Many tour pros remember their first encounter with Tiger Woods fondly. Robert MacIntyre is not one of those tour pros.

To be sure, the Scottish lefty is a huge fan of the 15-time major champ. He just won’t ever forget the unfortunate circumstances in which the two golfers initially crossed paths.

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Speaking with The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster ahead of this week’s Hero World Challenge hosted by Woods, MacIntyre was reminded of the embarrassing scene at the 2022 Masters when he had to take the walk of shame back to the 11th tee.

“That day at Augusta, I hit it in the trees at the 11th and said to Mike [Thomson], who was my caddie at the time, ‘I am going to take a couple of swipes at this’ and he said ‘you can’t as you can’t move that ball,’” MacIntyre recalled. “I said to him ‘Tiger is on the tee behind me, I can’t go back to it (laughing)’. But I went back and, yes, it was uncomfortable!”

That’s a tough spot. We might have kept whacking away at our golf ball just to avoid having to re-tee in front of arguably the greatest golfer ever. But Bob has come a long way since then. After an incredible year that saw him claim both the Canadian Open and Scottish Open, he’s in an elite field at this week’s Hero. And on Tuesday he got to hit more shots in front of Tiger as part of a pre-tournament competition.

David Cannon

Here’s what MacIntyre told Dempster ahead of the event about finally getting around to having a proper meeting with Woods, who isn’t playing this week as he recovers from a September back surgery.

“I mean, Tiger changed the game,” MacIntyre said. “For me, he is the best I have seen and he was freakishly good at the game. It is unbelievable to be here and it is unbelievable to have a guy like that hosting this event. I am obviously going to meet him at some stage this week and I’m just going to have to put on my big boy pants (laughing).”

You can do it, Bob. It can’t be more awkward than that 11th tee box a couple years ago.

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com