Hitting the right notes and right shots - Bob MacIntyre makes Masters mark

From marking his trips at the start of the week and then again at the end of it through the use of music, looking as though he feels very comfortable indeed out on the course and an embarrassing meeting with Tiger Woods, it’s already been quite a story for the Scot in the traditional season-opening major.

MacIntyre had already featured in golf’s three other marquee men’s events when he made his debut at the Georgia venue in 2021 through being inside the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking at the final cut-off point.

The left-hander joined Sandy Lyle, the 1988 winner, and Martin Laird, who had qualified through winning the Shriners Hospital for Children Open on the PGA Tour the previous October, in flying the Saltire on that occasion.

On arriving at Augusta National for the first time, MacIntytre had a tune from The Gunna Sound Ceilidh Band blaring inside his courtesy car, declaring that the “teuchtars have arrived” in a video post on social media.

For his opening two rounds, having picked the brains of former champion Patrick Reed during a practice circuit, the Scot was paired with fellow left-hander Mike Weir, the winner in 2003, and Korean C.T. Pan, carding a creditable two-over-par 74 on day one after surviving a mini-crisis in the middle of the round as he dropped four shots in a row.

That effort left him tied for 35th at the end of the opening day and, after then adding a second-round 70 to comfortably make the cut, it was evident that he’d instantly fallen in love with one of the game’s fabled venues.

Weir was certainly impressed as he watched MacIntyre make three birdies in a row from the 12th before parring his way in. “Oh, he’s got a great game,” said the Canadian. “He fades the ball well, which for a lefty you need to do around here, and he putts really well. You know, he can do well here on the weekend.”

Playing alongside another Canadian, Mackenzie Hughes, MacIntyre made six birdies as he signed for another two-under effort in the third round, leaving him tied for tenth on two under heading into the closing day.

Though nine shots behind the leader, Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama after he’d spreadeagled the field on the back of a 65, the top-12 finish MacIntyre needed to secure a return 12 months later wasn’t the only thing in his sights.

“I'm not here just to make up the numbers. I'm here because I got here on merit, and I'm here to win a golf tournament,” he insisted. “If I wasn't trying to win this golf tournament, I'd be sitting at home with my feet up watching it.”

Fair play to him for dreaming big at that stage in his career, but, in truth, it was mission accomplished for a first appearance as, playing alongside Tony Finau, he holed a 13-footer at the last to sign off with a 72, picked up $218,500 for securing a tie for 12th and, perhaps most important of all, had booked that return ticket for 2022.

It was the closest a Scot had come to ending up in the top ten in The Masters since Colin Montgomerie tied for eighth in 1998 and, boy, did Scottish golf fans enjoy seeing a Saltire back on the leaderboard in one of the game’s most-watched events.

“Yeah, I was seeing it on social media and stuff,” said MacIntyre at the time in reply to being asked if he was aware of the excitement that had been generated back home by his brilliant performance as a first-timer. “People from back home in Oban who don’t follow me that much were watching golf and The Masters because I was there. It’s happening all over Scotland and gone a bit more wild than I thought it would.”

Driving out of Magnolia Lane at the end of his wonderful week, MacIntyre had a familiar anthem blasting out of his car stereo. Baccara’s Yes Sir, I Can Boogie - the 1977 disco hit was adopted by the national football team after they qualified for the Covid-delayed Euro 2020 finals - was his tune of choice for that journey and there was even a singalong as he drove through the famous gates.

Twelve months later, after marking his arrival back by having Highland Cathedral playing on this occasion and playing with Lyle in a practice round, MacIntyre found himself paired with another former Masters winner, South African Charl Schwartzel, and England’s Laird Shepherd, the reigning Amateur champion at the time, for the opening 36 holes.

"As a person, I wouldn't say I've changed much, but as a golfer I feel completely different,” he said of how he was feeling in the build up to that appearance. “I know the direction I'm trying to go in. There's so much that people don't see from highs and lows. In the last year, I've learned more from the lows than the highs and it makes you realise what's good for you and what's bad for you."

In a strong westerly wind, the MacIntyre carded a one-over-par 73 to sit joint-32nd after day one on this occasion. “Round here that’s the toughest test I’ve had,” he admitted afterwards. “It was a good way to fight back and, seeing the scores, it’s obviously as tough as I thought it was.”

The same score on day two meant he’d made the cut again and, in doing so, MacIntyre made it an impressive eight cuts out of eight in majors. To put that into context, Rory McIlroy made five in a row when he was at the same stage, Phil Mickelson did the trick four times and Tiger Woods and Gary Player three.

It was just one for Jordan Spieth while Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Seve Ballesteros, Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia and Bubba Watson all missed the cut on their major debuts.

Playing with Lee Westwood in the third round, MacIntyre then had his worst round so far in the event as he signed for a 76. “I actually felt like I didn’t play bad,” insisted a deflated MacIntyre afterwards. “I played some good golf but just punished me every chance I got. I chipped and putted well; I hit the ball the way I was wanting to hit it. Yip, we could have got right back into position today to finish strong, this has just blown every opportunity.”

Even so, he gave it a real go in the final round alongside American Harold Varner III, signing for a 69 to finish joint-23rd, for which he earned $138,000. He thought he might be able to secure another return invitation after he birdied the 14th hole to move to four under on the day and be close to the top 12. But, after watching his second shot ricochet back to him from the trees on the par-5 15th, the resulting bogey there meant that it wasn’t to be this time.

“You play it once and you’re just like, it’s the most special place I‘ve ever been in my life,” he admitted at the end of that week. “If I’m going to be honest with you, my goal is to get back to Augusta National in 2023. That’s the only goal I really have in my mind right now. There’s golf tournaments in the world that I feel I can win, and this is one of them.”

Returning as a world’s top-20 player on this occasion, having won both the RBC Canadian Open and Genesis Scottish Open last year, MacIntyre will believe that more than ever and he’ll have an entire nation glued to the action in the event’s 89th edition.

It is unlikely to feature five-time winner Woods, with MacIntyre now being able to laugh about his meeting with him during the third round in 2022 after he’d returned to the 11th tee to reload and found Woods waiting there in the group behind.

“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,'" said MacIntyre, recalling the embarrassing moment during the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas in November. "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!”

A week to go and MacIntyre will be back up Magnolia Lane aiming to create more Masters memories.