Bob MacIntyre hit the high notes in Nashville during a visit on his week off and now the Oban man is hoping his putter is on song in the PGA Tour’s latest Signature Event. The $20 million Truist Championship, which was previously known as the Wells Fargo Championship, starts on Thursday on The Philadelphia Cricket Club’s Wissahickon Course. Masters champion and career grand slam winner Rory McIlroy is the defending champion at a new venue for the event this year due to Quail Hollow, the traditional home, staging the PGA Championship next week. “I played a little bit at Sullivan, which is the school I went to,” replied McIlroy to being asked about his cricket connection. “I actually preferred bowling than batting. I never really wanted to get hit by the ball.” Shinty, of course, is MacIntyre’s love away from golf but hitting his rivals for six, so to speak, either this week or the next few weeks would certainly be a timely boost for the Scottish No 1. Partly caused by missing the cut in The Masters, he’s slipped outside the top 20 in the world rankings over the past few weeks and a big performance sometime soon would be just what the doctor ordered in his bid to secure automatic qualification for this year’s Ryder Cup in New York. “My game has actually been pretty good,” said the RBC Canadian Open and Genesis Scottish Open champion. “I’ve obviously been struggling a bit with the putter, but that’s no surprise, it comes and goes. Snap putters, change putters. I do everything to try and fix it.” MacIntyre teamed up with Belgian Thomas Detry in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans a fortnight ago before taking last week off and declaring that Nashville was his “new favourite place in America” after paying a visit to Music City. “It was a wee bit rough,” he said of his game alongside Detry as the pair started strongly before ending up in a tie for 32nd. “But it’s difficult in that format to build momentum. “Overall, though, I think my game is in good shape. I’m driving the ball really well and my iron play has been decent, so I’m looking forward to the next few weeks.” World No 1 Scottie Scheffler, who returned to winning ways in style with an eight-shot success in the CJ Cup Byron Nelson last weekend is skipping this week’s event, meaning second-ranked McIlroy has a chance to close the gap in the global standings heading into the season’s second major. “First week, I guess, as an individual coming back,” he said of his only appearance since winning at Augusta National having been a title defence alongside Shane Lowry in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans. Referring to the fact he’d been in New York last weekend to make some TV appearances, McIlroy added: “I'm excited to get back to being a golfer. It's nice to get back into the routine again and get back to what I know how to do.”