Bob MacIntyre stretches impressive cut streak to nine out of nine in majors

Bob MacIntyre extended an impressive run of consecutive cuts in majors to nine at the start of his career as the young Scot succeeded where world No 1 Scottie Scheffler failed by making it to the weekend in the 104th PGA Championship.

Bob MacIntyre in action during the second round of the 2022 PGA Championship at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Picture: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images.

For the second day running on a demanding test in the PGA of America event at Southern Hills in Tulsa, the Oban man proved up to the challenge as he followed an opening 70 with a 71 for a one-over-par total.

It is the third year in a row that MacIntyre has made the cut in this tournament, having also achieved the feat on two occasions in The Open, The Masters and the US Open.

Rising to the task once again on the game’s biggest stages, the 25-year-old left-hander started his second circuit in a tie for 27th after an opening 70 in Oklahoma.

He opened with four straight pars before finding a bunker on the right side of the fairway at the fifth - a par 5 measuring a whopping 660 yards.

After having to be content with getting back out onto the fairway, the Scottish No 1 was still left with 261 yards to the hole for his third and, after finding the right rough, was unable to convert a two-and-a-half footer to save par.

Bouncing back has become a MacIntyre trademark in these events, though, and he did so once again, holing from 24 feet for a birdie-2 at the par-3 sixth.

He then couldn’t believe that a 38-footer for another 2 stayed above ground at the eighth, biting his hat in frustration as he walked to the hole but smiling at the same time.

In the company of PGA Tour winners Ryan Palmer and Alex Noren, MacIntyre then reeled off six pars in a row before three-putting from the fringe for a bogey-4 at the 14th.

That blow from that disappointment was lessened when he then saved par two holes later from six feet after finding a greenside bunker.

Two solid pars to finish rounded off another solid day’s work by MacIntyre, who sits joint-30th at the halfway stage in the season’s second major.

“It was difficult at the start of the round,” he said afterwards. “The wind was gusting and you were just trying to make pars.

“Dropped a shot on the par-5, and I thought ‘here we go, it's going to be a fight’. But a good bounce-back birdie on the par-3.

“I wasn't hitting it good, so I was just scrambling well. Luckily hit a lot of shots from the middle of trees. Yeah, one-over par is not great, but it's not horrific.”

MacIntyre finished joint-66th behind Collin Morikawa at Harding Park in San Francisco on his debut in this event in 2020.

He then ended up inside the top 40 as fellow lefty Phil Mickelson picked up the Wanamaker Trophy at the age of 50 at Kiawah Island last year.

MacIntyre will now be looking to finish even higher on Sunday as he bids to climb back up the world rankings and also get into next month’s US Open at Brookline.

He’s already exempt for the 150th Open at St Andrews in July on the back of a second successive top-10 finish in the Claret Jug event last year.

“It's not easy at all,” he added of this week’s test. “It's going to get you if you're not playing your best, and just now I'm not quite on it.

“But there's a score out there. There's guys shooting lights out, and I can see it there, I'm just not producing the golf that I want.

“Off the tee is normally my best strong point. Today it was terrible. But I'm still in there. Do a good job tomorrow and we could be fighting some Sunday.”

Russell Knox, the only other Scot in the field in Tulsa, missed the cut after rounds of 74 and 72 left him on six-over.