'I'm here to entertain, not bore' - Bob MacIntyre opens up on crowd-pleasing Wentworth shot

Standing on the left half of the fairway at the iconic 17th hole on the West Course at Wentworth in the opening round of the BMW PGA Championship, the Oban man reckoned he would have needed to go with just a 9-iron if he’d chosen to hit his second shot straight.

That would have left a pretty straightforward approach and no damage would likely have been done, but, as he admitted afterwards with a smile, MacIntyre wasn’t born to be “boring”.

To the delight of a huge gallery following him in one of the marquee groups in the Rolex Series event along with Shane Lowry and Jesper Svensson, out came the driver and the left-hander executed a cut - he described it as a “wee slider” - around the trees to perfection.

Coming up just short of the green, it set up his sixth birdie of the day and, though disappointed that he couldn’t finish with another one, signing for a five-under-par 67 was still a pleasing day’s work for MacIntyre.

It left him just two shots off the lead, held by Englishman Matthew Baldwin, and alongside former winners Lowry, Rory McIlroy, Billy Horschel and Matteo Manassero, as well as Edinburgh-based Frenchman Victor Perez.

“Look, I grew up playing links golf, so I can hit a driver off the deck,” said MacIntyre with a smile before adding that he couldn’t recall having done so at all on the PGA Tour this season but had on the opening hole in last week’s Amgen Irish Open at Royal County Down.

“I had to bend it and the only club that I can slice enough around that corner is a driver,” he added. “The last thing Mike [Burrow, his caddie] said is ‘you can’t overcut it’, so that gave me the permission to slice it.

“When I looked up and saw the shape of it, I’m like ‘och, that’s a stunning golf shot’. There’s not many times I get excited about golf shots, to be honest, but that one was nice.”

Lowry, his Ryder Cup team-mate, didn’t need to use any words to show what he thought of it. “I think Shane just turned to me and laughed as he knew I had no shot other than a driver off the deck,” he said. “If the hole went the other way with the wind that direction and slope going that way, he’d have done the exact same thing.”

As for the fans out in force on a lovely day at the Surrey venue, they lapped up getting the chance to see one of the finest sights in golf. “They were all going ‘ooh’ when I pulled out the driver because obviously the minute it takes off they don’t know what’s happening,” he added. “Mike can probably tell, but, other than him, I’m the only one who knows the minute it comes off the clubface where it is going or how far it is going.

“As soon as I hit it, I’m like ‘this is perfect’, it just needs to keep its flight and keep sliding and you could hear them from behind. I enjoy hitting those shots and the fans enjoy seeing those shots. 

“It’s fun, but I’m just doing my job. It’s meant to be entertainment, so I’m not going to be boring. If I’m going to hit a driver off the deck, it’s going to be a percentage play but, for the fans, they are wowed by it.”

MacIntyre’s golf has wowed lots of people in the past year in particular, having been unbeaten on his debut as Europe regained the Ryder Cup in Rome before winning both the RBC Canadian Open and the Genesis Scottish Open in his first full season as a PGA Tour card holder.

“There’s a different buzz around me, I suppose, as there’s more fans,” admitted MacIntyre, who’d also played in front of one of the biggest galleries of the day in Wednesday’s pro-am alongside three-time tennis Grand Slam winner Andy Murray, cricket star Jimmy Anderson and Anton du Beke, the Strictly Come Dancing judge. 

“Yeah, there’s been a lovely buzz since I turned pro. There’s been a gradual trend. I don’t notice it when I go back to Scotland. I notice it more in different places. Last week, for instance, I played with Shane the first two rounds but, on Saturday and Sunday, I also felt I had a good crowd following me and it was the same today.”

MacIntyre laughed after being asked if he thought any of his pro-am partners could have pulled off his driver off the deck. “Jimmy was a really good player and I reckon Andy could also hit that shot,” he said, “but Anton might dance his way around that shot!”

In an incident-packed round, 2014 champion McIlroy broke a club midshot, had to hit a back left-handed, watched his tee shot at the 17th bounce out of the trees and then hit his second shot at the 18th out of bounds.

“I don’t think it’s ever happened to me before,” admitted the world No 3 of his clubhead flying off at impact when hitting his approach at the par-5 12th but, nonetheless, seeing it finish six feet from the hole.  “I hit 9-ron on the ninth hole and it looked as if the ferrule was coming loose, but it was actually the head detaching from the shaft.

“I obviously didn’t realise that when I hit the shot on 12. It was a bit of a weird feeling. I hit the ball and obviously you’re expecting the weight of the club to just pull through and there was nothing there. Thankfully the ball went where I wanted it to. It could have been a lot worse but thankfully got it repaired and got it back on the 16th.

“I’ve certainly broken a few [clubs] after shots, but I don’t remember when a head’s flown off on me like that, because the shaft was intact. Just glued the shaft back in and we were ready to go again.”