Exclusive:Pre-event issue revealed as Bob MacIntyre misses Masters cut

Scotland on Sunday understands that the Oban man, who’d found himself playing 30 holes last Sunday in the Valero Texas Open after a weather delay the previous day, sustained the injury in the gym as he prepared for the season’s opening major.

It stopped him from playing a practice round on Tuesday, when he could only do bits and bobs on the practice areas at the Georgia venue.

MacIntyre, who was making his fourth appearance in the tournament, then played a few holes on Wednesday before withdrawing from the Par 3 Contest, at which point his team informed Augusta National of his situation.

The world No 8 was still struggling with the issue when he teed off in Thursday’s opening round in the company of world No 1 Scottie Scheffler and recent Houston Open winner Gary Woodland.

Though he drove the ball well, the fact he was trying to protect an injury perhaps explained why his approach play let him down as he signed for an eight-over-par 80.

It is understood that it was then touch and go whether or not the 29-year-old would be able to play on Friday before deciding to give it a crack in the second round.

Despite carding a one-under-par 71, MacIntyre missed the cut for the second year running in the tournament after coming into it on this occasion with high hopes.

The two-time PGA Tour winner didn’t speak to reporters at the end of either round, which, in fairness, is not like him at all.

It is believed that his conduct on the opening day, when he was caught using bad language and flicked a one-fingered gesture in disgust at finding water at the 15th en route to running up a quadruple-bogey 9, upset the tournament officials.

MacIntyre, who finished in the top five in his two events heading into the Masters, will now be aiming to get back on track when he tees up in next week’s RBC Heritage, one of the PGA Tour’s Signature Events, at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina.

A huge disappointment for MacIntyre, the sole Scot in the field at Augusta, will be that he missed the cut despite being one of the top drivers in the field over the opening two days on a firm and fast course.

Armed with a new Titleist GTS2 driver, he was T4 for driving accuracy after finding 12 out of 14 fairways on Thursday then T1 on Friday, when he only missed one fairway.

Cumulatively for the opening two circuits, the left-hander was T2, with only fellow former Genesis Scottish Open champion Aaron Rai (26 out of 28) hitting more fairways than him.

The telling statistic, though, was him being T65 for greens in regulation with 20 out of 36 while the Scot only made one birdie at eight par 5s over the two days.

Halfway leader Rory McIlroy was 90th out of 91 players for driving accuracy after only hitting 26 fairways. He’d missed every one at the par 5s, yet still managed to birdie seven of them.

MacIntyre’s next roll of the dice in a major will be the PGA Championship at Aronimink in Philadelphia next month before teeing up in the US Open at Shinnecock Hills in June.

The 2026 major campaign finishes at Royal Birkdale in July, when the Southport course hosts the 154th Open.

MacIntyre finished second behind J.J. Spaun in last year’s US Open at Oakmont before also ending up in the top ten in The Open, won by Scheffler at Royal Portrush.

Spaun, incidentally, also missed the cut at Augusta after he’d been another of the players to face a marathon final day in the Valero Texas Open, won by the American for a second time.