Bob bounces back after poor start in South Africa
Oban’s Bob MacIntyre continued his hugely impressive debut season on the European Tour with a top 10 finish in the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City, South Africa. His six-under-par total left him tied for eighth place, six shots behind winner Tommy Fleetwood.
More importantly, it saw him regain pole position from America’s Kurt Kityama in the battle for the title of Rookie of the Year.
A top 10 finish looked a long way off after the first two days’ play in South Africa with Bob following up an opening day 73 with a disappointing four-over-par 76 on Friday – a round which included an ugly quadruple bogey nine at his final hole. That left him languishing near the foot of the leaderboard going into the final two days.
What followed during the weekend was quite simply sensational. While his opponents all struggled in the windy conditions, Bob charged through the field.
He followed Saturday’s magnificent 65 with an equally impressive 68 on Sunday to rocket up the leaderboard. Bob’s attacking golf over the final two days yielded an incredible 13 birdies and a spectacular eagle – comfortably the best scoring of anyone in the field over the weekend.
As Bob said at the end of play: ‘After Friday’s 76 I thought “Oh no, we are struggling here”. But I worked on a few things on the range and they seem to be working,’ he added. ‘It was good and overall I’m delighted with the way I finished.’
Bob’s gritty display saw him climb two places to 11 in the Race to Dubai as well as move up to number 69 in the official world golf rankings. Not to mention the small matter of winning €127,000 in prize money.
Bob will take enormous confidence from this performance into Thursday’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai. Not
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only from his scoring, but also from the way he bounced back from Friday’s finish.
Many players would have crumbled after that final hole disaster, but it seemed to galvanise the Glencruitten star into producing his best golf.
If Bob can reproduce that kind of golf in Dubai this week, he might just be in with a chance of his maiden tour victory. It might be a long shot, but you wouldn’t put anything past this rising star.