Bob MacIntyre swaps Oban for Orlando to gear up for big run of events
Scot assembles coaches and caddie to get his game dialled in ahead of The Masters
Bob MacIntyre has geared up for the next phase of his exciting 2025 schedule by assembling his coaches and caddie for a dialling-in practice camp in Florida.
The Genesis Scottish Open and RBC Canadian Open champion spent just over a week back in Oban after missing the cut in his most recent PGA Tour outing in the Genesis Invitational at Torrey Pines.
That was the first cut MacIntyre had missed on the US circuit since the Wyndham Championship last August and, apart from being frustrated with his putting, he seemed happy enough with most of his game in the opening phase of his calendar campaign.
However, the 28-year-old is determined to do everything in his power to be firing on all cylinders for the rest of the season, starting with his next four events.
He is teeing up in this week’s Arnold Palmer Invitational presented by Mastercard, another of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events, at Bay Hill in Orlando before heading to Jacksonville for The Players Championship next week.
The left-hander will then travel to the Far East for an appearance on the DP World Tour in the Porsche Singapore Classic before a week off is followed by an eagerly-anticipated first appearance in The Masters since 2022.
With that run of events in mind, MacIntyre gathered his swing coach Simon Shanks, putting coach Mike Kanski and caddie Mike Burrow at Isleworth in Orlando for a few days last week in a bid to be properly prepared.
MacIntyre has huge faith in Shanks, having first linked up with the Englishman just under three years ago, while he has quickly established an equally-strong working relationship with Burrow after he picked up the Scot’s bag on a full-time basis last June.
Kanski, meanwhile, is a more recent addition to his team, though the pair had worked together on an unofficial basis in the past. Kanski, another Englishman, is the lead coach for the Phil Kenyon Putting Academy.
Before getting back to the coalface, MacIntyre paid a flying visit to Louisville to pop in to the distillery of one of his new sponsors, bourbon whiskey company Elijah Craig.
The visit was set up to give him the opportunity to be introduced to some of the people involved in the brand that is now on his new tartan bag, as well as filming some content to mark the partnership.
Meanwhile, Ewen Ferguson is returning to action this week on the DP World Tour but admits his appearance in the Joburg Open at Houghton Golf Club is mainly to test out his ongoing neck issue.
“It’s still there,” he told The Scotsman of a problem that has been causing his upper spine to stiffen up, “but I wanted to play (this week) to see if it holds up. One week in a ‘smaller’ event to see how I am then a week off after and I’ll know if I’m ready for Singapore and India.”
Ferguson joins Connor Syme, Calum Hill, Richie Ramsay and Scott Jamieson, now the top Scot in this season’s Race to Dubai after a top-ten finish in the weather-curtailed Investec South African Open last week, in flying the Saltie in Johannesburg.
Elsewhere in South Africa, in-form Lorna McClymont will be aiming to maintain her encouraging start in the professional ranks when she tees up along with Jane Turner and Laura Beveridge in the SunSport Ladies Challenge at Sun City.
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