Bob MacIntyre back at Masters as 'far better player' as secret Scottish ingredient fuels maiden major bid

First and foremost, it was simply down to the Oban man being back at the Georgia venue, having missed the last two editions of the Green Jacket joust and, therefore, enjoying the drive up Magnolia Lane on Sunday afternoon every bit as much as he did when making it for the first time in 2021 then again the following year.

“It feels great,” said a smiling MacIntyre of being in the field for the season’s opening major again after making no secret of how much it had hurt to get a taste of Masters week then find himself watching it like most people on TV for a couple of years. “It’s one of the golf tournaments you want to be involved in as this is a very, very, very special place and I am looking forward to it.”

Secondly, the 28-year-old wasn’t too fussed about the weather situation that caused the course and practice ground to be evacuated at 11.25am and left those patrons sitting in their cars in the parking lots, having already got some holes under his belt on Sunday after driving up from Orlando, where he’d spent a few days at a boot camp, so to speak, with the members of his support team.

“We turned up yesterday and played nine holes,” he reported as the rain started to hammer down on his umbrella. “I thought ‘eh, I might be here a bit too early’. But, seeing the weather today, you know what, if I have to sit on the couch for the rest of the day, then so be it. I am not worried.”

With Mike Burrow, who caddied for 2016 winner Danny Willett last year, on his bag on this occasion, MacIntyre broke himself back in at a venue he instantly fell in love with four years ago by playing the back nine. “It is firm, it is fast and that was only Sunday,” he said, admitting that certain parts of the course look different from a visual perspective after numerous trees were brought down when Hurricane Helene hit the Augusta area last September.

“There are quite a lot of holes you are looking at and going ‘I don’t remember being able to see that hole through the trees’,” added MacIntyre, who is among a record eight-strong contingent of left-handers for this edition. “When you are walking on the 15th fairway, you can see the fifth green through the trees. And, on 16, we were walking down and I was like ‘something looks different.’ That is Mother Nature.”

Mother MacIntyre - Carol - will be on cooking duties in a rented house this week, when Scottish fare, including mince and tatties, will be on the menu and flavoured by tastes from back home. “We always travel with sauces - little things from home which make you feel at home,” said MacIntyre, prompting a smile from his manager, Iain Stoddart. “There is brown sauce, there is everything. We have got everything that we need.

“I am a simple guy with a simple life. I don’t do anything fancy when I am away from the golf course. I am bare minimum - I don’t need fancy restaurants and that. I like the food that I like and get on with it.”

MacIntyre has certainly been getting on with it as far as his career goes since his last appearance here, having broken into the world’s top 20 for the first time on the back of his brilliant wins last year on the PGA Tour in the RBC Canadian Open with dad Dougie on the bag and then an even bigger fairytale in the Genesis Scottish Open.

“I’m a far better player than I was the previous two years I was here,” he declared, having also, of course, helped Europe regain the Ryder Cup in Rome in 2023 in the time he missed out on securing a coveted invitation from Augusta National. “I just think I am starting to work out the game of golf more. There’s more to it than just swinging a golf club. I am a big believer that it is less golf swing and more what the golf ball is doing. I think out here in America the majority of the guys are the same.

“It’s more about scoring than how pretty it looks. I think I’ve worked that out. I know that it’s more like a bowling alley lane, getting the bumpers up. You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be in these parameters. That’s the way I play golf now. I don’t really worry too much about the golf swing. I do my checks, do my basics and go out and play golf and hope it is there.”

Helped by some “nuggets” picked up from Andy Murray from playing with the tennis legend in a pro-am at Wentworth last year, MacIntyre feels he is ready for his next step, which is to be challenging in a major, and doing so here, of course, would give him a chance to emulate Sandy Lyle’s famous win in 1988.

“I said it about the Scottish Open, that I only wanted one chance and I managed to get two chances," he said of landing that prize 12 months after being denied by a birdie-birdie finish from Rory McIlroy. “It’s the same in the majors. I just want one chance and, if you get that chance come the back nine on Sunday, then it’s throw the kitchen sink at it. If I play well, I fancy my chances, I do.”

No wonder he was looking happy.