Bogey-free start for Bob MacIntyre in US as weather hits British Masters
In-form Oban man lights up his opening round in Tour Championship in Atlanta with 30-foot eagle putt
Nearly nine hours after play had gotten underway on the other side of the Atlantic in the Husqvarna British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo, Bob MacIntyre beat anyone in the field at The Belfry to sign a scorecard on Thursday. It was another good one, too, in the first round of the $40 million Tour Championship, the PGA Tour’s season-ending event, in Atlanta.
Due to three separate suspensions - the first one came just two minutes after play had started - not a single player managed to get finished in the opening circuit of the British Masters, which is being staged for the 48th time on the DP World Tour.
After losing just over seven hours of play then being forced to stop the action an hour or so earlier than might have been the case as the Birmingham area looked like Armageddon for a spell, there is a distinct possibility that a call will be made to cut the $3.5 million event to 54 holes.
As all that was happening - or not happening - on this side of the pond, MacIntyre took up in the PGA Tour’s season finale where he’d left off when carding a best-of-the-day 65 in the final round of the BMW Championship at Bellerive Country Club in St Louis on Sunday.
Making his third successive appearance in an event featuring the year’s best performers on the US circuit, the Oban man carded a three-under-par 67, which was illuminated by an eagle at the par-5 sixth from just over 30 feet. He’d already birdied the par-4 third and parred every other hole.
The effort, which left him in a tie for 15th at the end of the day, came in the company of his Ryder Cup team-mate Viktor Hovland, who made seven birdies as he signed for a 64 to sit one two the pace. It was set by former Genesis Scottish Open champion Min Woo Lee as the Australian signed for eight birdies in a bogey-free opening salvo.
Back at The Belfry, it was probably one of the most frustrating days of the DP World Tour season, especially after all the lovely weather that the south of England has been enjoying over the past few weeks.
Play started on schedule at 7.30am in the opening event on the circuit’s Back 9 Swing but, shortly after Daniel Young had hit off in the opening group at the 1st and Matthieu Pavon had done likewise at the iconic tenth at the Sutton Coldfield venue, they were walking back to the clubhouse with their respective groups.
Thunderstorms that had caused severe flooding in the Birmingham area overnight forced play to be suspended at 7.32am, leading to an initial three-hour delay. Apparently, there hadn’t been a drop of rain in this part of the country for a total of 50 days, but, as more than 25mm fell over the course of the morning, play was suspended again just after noon due to the playing surfaces becoming flooded.
“We were lucky to start, I think,” admitted Ben Groutage, the tournament director. “This persistent rain has taken a lot of the bunkers out of play and the course just became unfair. The tees, fairways and greens are holding up very well; it’s just the bunkers with the sheer amount of water we’ve had in a small amount of time.”
As players waited patiently to find out when the action might get underway again, a decision was made that those due to be in the afternoon wave - they included Ryder Cup star Tyrrell Hatton and fellow Englishman Marco Penge - would not be starting the event until Friday.
It was 4.15pm, around which time the sun had shown its head, though not for long, before play restarted, meaning that, at that stage, just over seven hours of play had been lost. Though too early to say for certain, there’s a strong possibility that the winner on this occasion will be crowned after three rounds rather than four on Sunday night.
Pavon, who won the Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour in 2024, is only teeing up in this event due to the fact he didn’t make the FedEx Cup Play-Offs. Missing five cuts in a row, he ended up 126th on the points list at the end of the regular phase of the season.
The 33-year-old is one of the class players in this week’s field, though, as evidenced by him making four birdies in a row from the 14th then getting to five under through 12 holes. It would have been bitterly disappointing, though, that he found himself back to just two under with a hole to play when the action was halted for the day.
When play resumes at 7.30am on Friday morning, Northern Irishman Tom McKibbin holds the lead on five under, one ahead of Englishman Joe Dean and Spaniard Nacho Elvira. Having fought back from being three over early on, Young is one under with a hole to play, having picked up three birdies in his last four holes of the day.
Scott Jamieson, the newly-crowned Nexo Championship title holder following his welcome returning to winning ways at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire last weekend, sits on one over, having been going along nicely until he found water with his approach at the par-5 third and ended up taking a 7 there.
“Yeah, it’s been a tricky day today,” admitted Groutage after play had been halted at 7.11pm. “We’ve now just had the hat-trick of suspensions and it is too late now to get any golf in, so we have suspended for the day. Tomorrow we are going to restart at 7.30 and the afternoon wave will probably be starting at 8-8.15 tomorrow and they will play their first round, have a quick bite to eat then go straight back out and play their second round.
“We’ll just see how far we can get tomorrow. We have some weather coming again tomorrow afternoon, so we will stay out there as long as we can.”
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