Robert MacIntyre declined interview requests for a second Masters day in succession, with the fiery Scot facing a reprimand from Augusta National over his behaviour in the closing stages of round one.
MacIntyre’s miserable visit to Georgia concluded with a 71, which ensured he missed the cut at seven over par. The key damage had been done on Thursday, when MacIntyre slumped to an 80 which included a quadruple bogey nine at the 15th.
The player’s reaction there, and elsewhere on the back nine, will inevitably lead to Masters officials having a stern word with the world No 8. Live television coverage picked up MacIntyre releasing a series of expletives. The left-hander whacked the turf in anger after being disappointed with his approach to the 14th. One hole later, having found water, MacIntyre raised his hand to offer a middle-fingered gesture.
With the Masters famously protective of its reputation and upholding high standards, MacIntyre’s situation will not be ignored despite a missed cut. The 29-year-old moved at pace from the scoring area on Friday, just as he had done a day earlier, without stopping for the waiting media. Perhaps MacIntyre feared what further, negative impact his sentiment could have had if made public.
Augusta officials are likely to take a dim view of a MacIntyre social media post on Friday evening, which depicted an AI-generated image of himself as the iconic Masters gnome making an offensive gesture.
The Athletic has quoted MacIntyre’s father, Dougie, as stating his son needs to “tone it down” when things are going array on the course. MacIntyre’s struggles in this Masters were a surprise given his general form, including a close shave with victory at last weekend’s Texas Open.
MacIntyre’s playing partner, the world No 1 Scottie Scheffler, added a 74 to his first-round 70 for an even-par aggregate at halfway. Scheffler, who has looked well short of his best thus far at Augusta, admitted to struggling with the pace of the greens.
“I would like to hole a few more putts,” Scheffler said. “I felt like it was rolling nicely today but balls just weren’t dropping. Maybe my reads were a little bit off. I felt like I was starting online, could have been speed on a couple of putts, but overall today I felt like I definitely played better than my score.
“It was frustrating to get it back to even, have a couple of par fives in front of me, then not do many things I felt wrong and wasn’t able to convert really basically anything coming down the stretch.”
