How Bob MacIntyre matched halfway leader tee to green but missed Masters cut

From tee to green, Bob MacIntyre matched Justin Rose in the opening two rounds of the 89th Masters. That, though, was where the similarities ended for the 2023 Ryder Cup playing partners.

While Rose, who did a brilliant job mentoring the Scot on the first two days in Rome, led at the halfway stage in the opening major of the season, MacIntyre’s race had been run after a first missed cut in three Augusta National appearances.

A brace of 75s did the damage and the stats certainly backed up the Oban man, in a typically honest way, describing his performance on the greens on his return to the Georgia venue after a two-year absence as “abysmal”.

Bob MacIntyre shakes hands with Nick Dunlap at the end of the second round of the 89th Masters at Augusta National, where Billy Horschel was the third player in the group | Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

In the opening circuit, MacIntyre had 34 putts, nine more than Rose in his opening 65 and 12 more than former Open champion Cameron Smith’s best-of-the-day putting effort.

The Scot then had 29 strokes on the pristine surfaces in the second round compared to Rose’s 27 in a score of 71 while two-time winner Jose Maria Olazabal and debutant Matt McCarty fared best with 24 apiece.

Over the course of the two days, MacIntyre hit the same number of fairways - 21 out of 28 - as Rose and, having found 23, just one less green in regulation than the former US Open and Olympic champion. But, as they often say, you drive for show but putt for dough.

In the first round, Rose was +5.27 for strokes gained on the greens then +2.09 on day two. Compare that to MacIntyre’s -2.65 and -1.25 and it was easy to see why one was in the mix heading into the weekend and the other was licking some wounds.

It’s been the story of the 28-year-old’s 2025 season, to be honest. In nine events, eight on the PGA Tour and the Hero Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, he has only gained on the field four times in putting. On the PGA Tour, he sits 137th on that particular list with -0.248.

“You can't get the ball in the hole, you've got no chance. You might as well go up the road anyway,” admitted MacIntyre in assessing his performance at Augusta National, where he’d arrived with a spring in his step and had been mentioned by lots of people as a possible contender.

The world No 17 will regroup and go again in the next week’s RBC Heritage, another of the PGA Tour’s Signature events, before teaming up with Thomas Detry in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Then, after a short break, it will be a case of cranking things up again for the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow.

“As much as I'm annoyed,” he said of an early exit on this occasion, “I'm not really disappointed in the way I've played. Tee to green has been absolutely superb. Again, some nice short game shots. Putter has been hot the last wee while; it just didn't turn up this week.”

At the first of two recent training camps at Isleworth in Florida, the greens had been slick and contributed to him putting well in both the Arnold Palmer Invitational and The Players Championship. “If I was being picky, it wasn’t as good a prep,” he said of the one for this assignment. “They were slow and sluggish - like myself this week!”