{"id":70163,"date":"2025-08-15T12:08:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70163\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T12:08:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T12:08:12","slug":"bob-macintyre-make-six-straight-birdies-including-one-from-66ft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/70163\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob MacIntyre make six straight birdies, including one from 66ft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bob MacIntyre hailed the jaw-dropping finish to his opening round at the BMW Championship as his finest putting performance as he took a three-stroke lead over an impressively resilient Tommy Fleetwood in Maryland.<\/p>\n

The Scot, whose six top-10s this year include that dramatic runner-up spot at the US Open, rolled in six consecutive birdies for a back nine of just 29 and an eight under round of 62. This putting potpourri started with a 66-foot odyssey and he also made efforts from 40ft and 17ft. Fleetwood showed his sense of humour remains intact after last week\u2019s crushing disappointment when it was relayed to him that he and Hideki Matsuyama were the only two players not to drop a shot. \u201cBob wasn\u2019t even bogey-free?\u201d he said. \u201cPathetic.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew it was terrific, even on more receptive greens at Caves Valley following a two-hour weather delay, and MacIntyre made a whopping combined 195 feet of putts in all. \u201cThe last six holes are probably as good as I\u2019ve ever putted in a stretch,\u201d said MacIntyre. \u201cSo consistent. I changed putting coach at Pebble Beach this year and I\u2019ve turned the right corner. I expect to roll in putts. I work hard at it. I do a lot on my reads. I do a lot on my touch. When you get the eye in, it\u2019s free-flowing and it\u2019s nice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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His new putting coach is Mike Kanski, the long-time lead coach for the Phil Kenyon Putting Academy at Formby Hall, and MacIntyre explained that a mid-tournament change of putters at the US PGA Championship had been part of the revamp. \u201cI wasn\u2019t feeling comfortable so we adjusted that. We changed putters and we changed technique. The priority is getting that putter face as square as I can on impact, which isn\u2019t rocket science but it\u2019s difficult to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

If he was understandably delighted with his start to the second FedEx Cup play-off event, the same went for Fleetwood, who now has 43 top-10 PGA Tour finishes without a win, which is more than anyone since 1983. Squandering a lead in Memphis last week inevitably provoked more questions about his inability to close out stateside tournaments, but this was a gutsy comeback.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just keep going, don\u2019t you?\u201d he said after his 65. \u201cThere\u2019s so many layers to it when you are disappointed (and) getting myself into contention and not being able to finish it off \u2014 I think the easiest thing to do is let that get to you. It takes effort to see the positives and make sure you prepare properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BMW<\/p>\n

Fleetwood did not drop a shot in his first round at Caves Valleys Golf Club<\/p>\n

NICK WASS\/AP<\/p>\n

There is an irony in attracting so much flak for not winning, notably in Memphis and at the Travelers Championship, when he is playing as well as ever for most of the time. \u201cI\u2019ve been a pro for I don\u2019t know how long and I\u2019ve had my fair share of playing rubbish. I\u2019ve spent weeks playing terrible. So playing well and being in contention is a privilege. You\u2019ve got to enjoy those times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enjoying it less was the errant driver Rory McIlroy<\/a> who finished eight shots behind MacIntyre and described his round as \u201cawful\u201d. Scottie Scheffler is third, a shot behind Fleetwood, followed by Viktor Hovland, Ben Griffin and Rickie Fowler. Justin Rose is one over with the US Ryder Cup captain and possibly player, Keegan Bradley, another shot back and needing a little more to guarantee a place in the top 30 for the Tour Championship finale next week.<\/p>\n

At the Danish Golf Championship, Rasmus Hojgaard finished two off Marco Penge\u2019s seven-under lead as he seeks to impress Europe\u2019s Ryder Cup captain Luke Donald. His fellow hopeful Matt Wallace had a mediocre start and is back at level par.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bob MacIntyre hailed the jaw-dropping finish to his opening round at the BMW Championship as his finest putting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":70164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,755,85],"class_list":["post-70163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}