What went wrong as horror hole left Bob MacIntyre facing Masters misery
Scot facing early exit after carding his worst score at Augusta National in 11 rounds
Bob MacIntyre is staring an early exit from the 90th Masters in the face after suffering a horror hole in the opening round at Augusta National.
The Oban man, who came into the event with high hopes of getting into the mix, carded an eight-over-par 80 to sit joint-82nd in the 91-man field.
With only the top 50 and ties making the cut, it means he needs to go low in the second round on Friday to be around for the weekend.
Not something he does very often, MacIntyre didn’t speak to waiting reporters after signing for his disappointing effort in the company of world No 1 Scottie Scheffler and recent Houston Open winner Gary Woodland.
That’s probably because the steam was coming out of his ears, with the par-5 14th hole causing the bulk of the damage in his worst score at the Georgia venue in 11 rounds.
As had been the case for most of the round, the 29-year-old was on the fairway with his drive only to come a tad short with his second shot with an iron and see it roll back into the water.
Playing four, he then did the same with his next one before sending his sixth shot through the back of the green and walking off with a quadruple-bogey 9, as 1992 winner Fred Couples did a few groups ahead.
Earlier, the world No 8, who was wearing a Nike tartan polo shirt, had taken a double-bogey 6 at the ninth before sending an eagle putt off the green at the par-5 13th.
All in all, it was a frustrating day for him and, with some bad language being picked up on microphones before then making a one-fingered gesture at his second shot at the 15th, he could find himself in trouble with the Green Jackets.
Taking up where he’d left off in the final round of the Valero Texas Open on Sunday, when he finished joint-second behind J.J. Spaun, MacIntyre hit 12 out of 14 fairways.
That left him tied for fourth in driving accuracy, but, with the tone having been set at the fifth, he missed green after green and then compounded matters by not having his best day in terms of chipping.
His day was probably summed up best by what happened at the 13th, where he hit a great drive and then found the heart of the green with a 3-wood only to be left shaking his head in disbelief when his eagle attempt ended up off the putting surface.
MacIntyre is out at 3.19pm UK time in the second round and, standing seven shots outside the projected cut mark, he needs to shoot in the 60s to avoid making a second successive early exit in the season’s opening major.
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