THE HAND AID’S TALE
MacIntyre’s using enforced break for greater good
He’s raked in extraordinary sums over the past 16 months.
Yet Bob MacIntyre’s summation of the past week screamed ordinary.
“It has been all right, just chilling out doing some painting,” said the lad with almost £1.9million banked since his European Tour debut 6000 miles away in Hong Kong.
“I’m painting the house – just waiting on more paint to arrive.”
Staying safe is No.1 priority while Glencruitten Golf Club, which the family home in Oban backs on to, lies dormant amid the coronavirus crisis.
It’s as much a wrench for the son as it is for the father, his dad Dougie being the one who year-in year-out tends to the course’s fairways as head greenskeeper.
“He’s fed up already!” said the 23-year- old, who credits his old man as his biggest inspiration.
“But he’s quite relaxed. He’s doing the same as us – just battening down the hatches and hiding from it.
“For me it is about safety. I am worried about my family – mum, dad, sisters, grandparents – so I’m not moving outside the fence of the house.
“Sometimes I have to go for the odd bit of shopping but I am doing everything I can to make sure I don’t spread this thing.
“This is pretty much the longest I’ve gone without playing, other than due to injury.” The most recent, a niggling hand injury, saw him set his clubs aside for eight weeks after being crowned Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year in what now seems like four very long months ago.
The magical maiden season, with three runner-up finishes and a tied sixth on his Major debut at The Open, showed the Scot belonged on the big boys’ circuit.
With mum Carol, dad Dougie, sister Nicola and foster brothers Thomas and Dan to keep him company in the family home, it also ensured life on the road can now come with a few more pitstops.
“It’s a lonely place,” said the world No.67 about life on Tour. “I try not to do too many events in a row now.
“Now that I am in the position I am in, there is no need to batter off 31 events in a year.
“Don’t get me wrong, if I am playing well I will do it. I will just keep going.
“But there is no need to push your body. I reckon if I had done maybe fewer events one after another in the last few years then I might not have had the hand injury. I just feel now you’ve set yourself up on Tour, you don’t need to keep battering out event after event, you can start enjoying it.
“It (the season) is going to restart at some point, it has to.
“It will restart around September time in my opinion.
“But what they do with events is the next question – what no one knows.
“I’ve just got to work on my technique and get myself ready for when they say: ‘Right, we’re back up and running in three weeks’ time.’
“Then they will just jam everything in together, I am guessing.
“I will pick and choose (when to play) but there are a lot of things we don’t know.
“Like the Race to Dubai – there are only going to be a few events before the end of the season.”
Play a few blinders and the Race to Dubai, in which the young Scot finished 11th first time around, is there for the taking then?
“That’s it, that’s it,” MacIntyre chipped in.
Whether the galleries will be brimming to take it all in is just one of numerous unknowns in a world of sport now devoid of certainty.
The PGA Tour announced plans to continue behind closed doors last month before shutting down the circuit a matter of hours later.
Holing a putt on Royal Portrush’s 18th in The Open – “the noise, it is something that you dream of” – goes down as his best golfing memory.
So on the prospect of tournaments being played out behind closed doors, he said: “It would be different. But I don’t know what’s best.
“People enjoy watching golf and come out to support it. That’s how, at the end of the day, we get paid from sponsorship and from spectators.
“A golf tournament is almost like a party – there has to be folk there to see it all unfold or it just wouldn’t be the same. But who knows? If that happens, we will deal with it.
“We just have to sit it out and see what they come up with.”
MacIntyre may have turned his hand to painting but he’s relieved it is now recovered enough to get back to playing – whenever that might be.
Hitting balls into the net in the garden
and sending videos back and forth with his coach David Burns is as far as it goes for now.
MacIntyre said: “This season has been hard because of my injury.
“I went over a week early to Dubai, tried to prepare but my hand was still sore and I had to withdraw from Abu Dhabi.
“I played Dubai, still getting pain, managed a top 10 but still wasn’t enjoying it. Then I went to Mexico, started becoming pain-free and I’ve been pain-free since really.
“Now I am going to start enjoying it again because the last six- eight months I have been playing in pain.
“Obviously I did everything I could. I saw all of the top specialists about my hand.
“That’s the only reason I kept playing – they said it was not going to make it any worse. If I get an
injury again I will follow the exact same procedure and see the top person about it.
“It costs but that’s the way it has got to be, just get it done so you know exactly what is wrong and you can work at it from the word go.
“I went down south to see Doug Campbell, a hand specialist. I saw him almost the same amount of time I saw my parents back home.
“I was there all the time getting it checked over. Touch wood just now, everything is great.
“I’m not going to batter the practice too much off of mats though because it is not worth it.
“In my last two events (of last season) I bit the bullet and said: ‘Right, we’ve got two events to make a big push on this Race to Dubai list.’
“That was the first time since about Sweden in the middle of the season that I actually practised after my round because of my hand. I just couldn’t stand there and hit balls. I used to do wedge testing every week but my hand meant I couldn’t stand and hit 100 balls.
“I could do putting but I could only hit balls to warm up then play. I had to rest just because the pain was too much.
“It’s working on technique and that is all you’re doing just now.
“All the goals that you’ve set are just technique work or physical stuff that you’re doing off the course. You have just got to enjoy it and getting to spend time with the family is the main enjoyment.
“I’m enjoying the stuff that I am working on just now because it is to prevent another hand injury and I know it is going to help me in the long run.
“But I hate just standing there hitting ball after ball. I’d rather be out hitting big cuts or hooks round trees, shot shaping rather than just technique, repetitive work.
“I can see it being quite a long time before we are actually back competing at all.”
MacIntyre was going to be in the field at next month US PGA, now postponed, and was close to making June’s US Open too.
September’s Ryder Cup at Whistling Straits remains in with a shot of being held as planned. And the left-hander surely has a shot of making it.
He said: “There is still a chance of it. Big events, if they go ahead, good performances in them – then who knows?
“It is down to if I play good golf when we get up and running again. You don’t know what is going to happen.
“I have got one goal in mind and that is the top 50 in the world. If I achieve that then I am closer to the Ryder Cup.”
I am worried about my family so not moving outside the fence .. I am doing everything I can so I don’t spread this