Coach eager for rookie award winner Bob MacIntyre to avoid becoming 'one-season wonder'

Bob MacIntyre (front left) with members of his team, including David Burns (back centre).

Now the Lothians man is determined to play his part in Scottish golf’s man of the moment kicking on and not turning into a “one-season wonder”.

Burns, who hails from Haddington and is based at Kingsfield Golf Centre on the outskirts of Linlithgow, has coached MacIntyre for around three years.

He walked every step of the way as the left-hander clinched the Sir Henry Cotton rookie award in the final event of the season, the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai.

Bob MacIntyre of Scotland poses with 2019 Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year and Challenge Tour Graduate of the Year awards. Picture: Getty

Burns was also in the room along with MacIntyre’s mum and dad, Carol and Dougie, as he was presented with that piece of silverware and also the Challenge Tour Graduate of the Year Trophy from European Tour CEO Keith Pelley.

“It’s why you play golf,” said MacIntyre as he savoured his double triumph. “I couldn’t do it without the support of everyone from mum, dad, manager and the swing guru himself, David Burns.

“He’s changed my game, night and day. When I went to see David, two-and-a-half to three years ago, I couldn’t hit a driver on the planet. Today we’re stepping up with drivers and we’re hitting them as hard as we can and we know roughly where they are going to go.

“After every round, we sit down and reflect on what’s gone on, and we learn from it each week and each day. I can’t thank everyone enough.”

MacIntyre recorded seven top-10 finishes as he beat two double winners, American Kurt Kitayama and Italian Guido Migliozzi, in the rookie race.

“His consistency has been phenomenal over the course of the year,” Burns told the Edinburgh Evening News in Dubai before heading home.

“It’s been a gradual improvement and, if you look at his record on the Challenge Tour last season, you couldn’t really have expected this if you don’t know him like I do.

“This year he seems very comfortable, but the fact he’s been made to feel so welcome - he’s very popular with everyone - has a lot to do with that. Fellow players, caddies, everyone, really, has taken to him and that says a lot about him as a person.”

MacIntyre is now set to take some time off, partly to rest a niggling wrist injury, before starting his 2020 campaign back in the UAE in January.

“From my perspective, I know what I want to do technically,” added Burns, who is one of the Stephen Gallacher Foundation coaches. “But everything is on hold until he gets the go ahead with his hand injury. We have been walking on egg shells the last couple of months. There are things I want to do that I am unable to do because he can’t go out and grind on the range.

“He wants to do it, but this niggling injury that won’t go away at the moment is stopping that from happening.

“He needs to keep progressing. He can’t be a one-season wonder, definitely not.”