CNN
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When Robert Macintyre lost the British Amateur Championship final in 2016, he thought his dream was over; he was just 19 years old, and he was absolutely distraught.

“I remember pretty much crying the whole way home,” he recalled to CNN Sports, “because I thought I’m never going to get to play The Masters, never going to get to play the US Open or The Open in my life.”

Now 28, Macintyre is preparing to play The Masters at Augusta for a third time, and he admits that he was “small minded” to react so fatefully to a round of golf. But he says he’s just so competitive that he couldn’t help it.

“If I got beat at something when I was younger, I’d be crying. You wouldn’t believe how competitive I am,” he said with a grin. “If I play a game of pool or a game of darts now, I’m not playing for the fun of it. That’s not me. I’m playing to win.”

The soft-spoken MacIntyre is one of the more understated stars on the PGA Tour. Growing up in the tiny Scottish town of Oban (population 8,140) stepping into the bright lights of the American sports world has required some adjustments. “I’m a shy guy,” he explained. “I’m the complete opposite to the Americans.”

In 2024, he admitted that he’d found it difficult to settle in the US; he was homesick, and he returned to Scotland to get away from the circus for a while. Back home, he says, nobody makes a fuss of him: “I get treated as Bob, the boy that’s grown up in Oban. I don’t get treated as Robert MacIntyre, the golfer on the PGA Tour.”

His R&R trip was transformative; within a few months, he’d won twice on the tour.

Just as there are two separate worlds that he lives in, MacIntyre also says that there are two different versions of himself.

“I think I’ve got two personalities,” he explained to CNN. “On the golf course, I’m very serious. Off the golf course, I’m very chilled out, easygoing, I love a laugh.”

The American golf scene is something he’s learned to experience in small doses, “dipping in and dipping out,” of the tour.

“I come out here and it’s, ‘Lights, camera, action,’ everywhere, people shouting silly things. I accept that when I’m out here,” he said. “I think I’ve just worked out that the things that annoy me are going to annoy me for the rest of my life in America, and the things that I enjoy, I’m going to enjoy for the rest of my life in America.”

MacIntyre has also had to adjust to the fact that what was once his hobby is now his profession, and he’s had to consciously find ways of falling back in love with the game. At the same time, he’s learned that he needs to keep his guard up because it’s not just his opponents that might get the better of him.

“The eyeballs are always on you,” he cautioned. “There’s always someone with a camera to try and catch you out. They’re just looking for that next story. And for me, it’s about not being that next story.”

At the Canadian Open in June, his breakout win was such a good story that everybody wanted to tell it. At short notice, he needed a caddie, so he called up his dad, Dougie, a greenskeeper in Scotland. A few days later they were celebrating the biggest win of his career together.

“I’m crying with joy, but I’m laughing because I didn’t think this was possible,” MacIntyre said at the time. “This is the guy who has taught me the game of golf and I just can’t believe I have done this with him on the bag.”

Six weeks later, he was back on more familiar territory, winning the Scottish Open at Loch Lomond and becoming the first Scottish golfer to win two PGA Tour events in the same season since Sandy Lyle in 1988. That same year, Lyle became the Masters champion and MacIntyre hopes there will be a green jacket in his future, too.

“That’s the plan,” he beamed. “It’s one of my dreams. I met (Sandy) for the first time in 2021, lovely guy. I speak to him quite a bit on message and he’s given me a few tips on Augusta. My dream is to win the green jacket, and I think the course sets up reasonably nicely for me.”

Like many golfers, MacIntyre has long been seduced by the allure of Augusta National. “It’s not just one thing, it’s everything about it,” he explained. “When you watch on TV, you see the beautiful flowers, it’s just the most perfect setting for a golf course in the world.”

MacIntyre makes no secret of his desire to become the best golfer in the world and he knows that he must always be ready to make the most of his opportunities: “One chance, that’s all I ask for, just one chance at a major championship and then, hopefully, it can fall my way.”

The small-town boy is making his way on the game’s biggest stage, which is an appropriate metaphor for how he thinks he will succeed.

“Golf is a process, so long as I’m achieving my little processes then you get the big trophy the end of the week.”

CNN
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France and Atlético Madrid soccer star Antoine Griezmann has scored five hat-tricks in his career, but none are as special – or unique – as the hat-trick he has scored with his family.

The 34-year-old World Cup winner celebrates the birthdays of his three children on the same day, April 8 – and none of them were born in the same year.

Mia came first in 2016, and she was in his arms when he celebrated Les Bleus’ World Cup triumph in Moscow two years later. In 2019, Amaro was born, and then Alba arrived in 2021. He says the fact that they share the same birthday is a total coincidence.

“It was neither intentional nor planned,” he told Journal De Femmes during an interview in 2023. “It’s just the way it is.”

He also said that none of his wife’s labors were induced, remarking to Le Figaro in 2021, “It’s crazy! I don’t have any magic potion to explain such a thing except that when you’re calm, relaxed on vacation, without pressure or matches or training, things happen naturally.”

While highly unusual, the Griezmanns are not the only family to celebrate all their children’s birthdays on the same date. The Lammerts in North Carolina have four daughters, each born three years apart, and their youngest girl was born a month ahead of schedule. Kristin Lammert told ABC News that when she and her husband realized that fate was going to give them all the same birthday, they just started laughing.

The Griezmanns may be the highest profile example of such a wonderful family coincidence. Antoine has played 137 games for the French national team, and he’s spent much of his career at Atlético Madrid, one of the top clubs in Spain’s La Liga. He’s won the Europa League with the Colchoneros and the Spanish Cup with Barcelona, and he’s also played in the Champions League final and two World Cup finals – winning in 2018 and losing in 2022.

But he’s nowhere near the record for the most children born on the same day.

According to Guinness World Records, that number is seven. In the Pakistani city of Larkana, Ameer Ali Mangi and Khudeja Ameer raised four boys and three girls – including two sets of twins – who were all born on August 1 between 1992 and 2003. Mangi told Arab News in 2023 that before setting the record, they used to celebrate birthdays modestly, but now they do so with “Much more happiness and excitement!”

His family is now globally famous and they are local celebrities who pose for selfies whenever they’re recognized.

What’s even more remarkable, though, is that this family celebrates everything on the same day of the year, as not only were the children all born on August 1, both Mangi and Ameer were both born on that date in 1968 and 1973, and they were also married on that date in 1991.

Springtime is often a special time for European soccer players – league titles and cup competitions are often decided in April and May. But whatever happens, Griezmann will always get to celebrate a hat-trick on April 8.

“It’s a day that will be forever etched in the family’s memory, especially between brothers and sisters,” he said.

CNN
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The Los Angeles Dodgers made their anticipated trip to the White House on Monday, visiting with Donald Trump to celebrate their World Series title and keeping up a longstanding tradition of sports champions meeting the US president.

Trump called Dodgers manager Dave Roberts “one of the greatest managers ever to wear the Dodger blue,” and he also notably shook hands with Mookie Betts, who back in 2019 had opted not to visit the White House when he was a member of the 2018 World Series champion Boston Red Sox.

“That guy can play, can’t he?” Trump said of Betts. “I mean, unbelievable.”

During the visit in the East Room of the White House, Clayton Kershaw presented Trump with a custom Dodgers jersey with the number 47 on it. Later, Shohei Ohtani got to spend time with Trump in the Oval Office.

Happening now behind the scenes, President Donald Trump welcomes
Los Angeles @Dodgers Shohei Ohtani to the Oval Office…

POTUS: “It’s a great honor, you’re an amazing athlete and person…” pic.twitter.com/LUUCspxFgu

— Dan Scavino (@Scavino47) April 7, 2025

In a 2019 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Roberts previously indicated he would decline an invite. But last month, Roberts said, according to ESPN, that “it’s a great honor for all of us” to visit the White House.

Betts, meanwhile, according to the Los Angeles Times, recently called it a “regret” that he didn’t visit in 2019, which was during Trump’s first term.

Betts also said, according to the Times, that in hindsight he felt his absence in 2019 distracted from the team’s accomplishment and that it had made the news more about him, which he called “selfish.”

“This is not about me; I don’t want anything to be about me,” Betts said, per the Times last week. “This is about the Dodgers. Because these boys were there for me.”