Robert MacIntyre reflects on a career-defining season where he proved he belongs among golf’s elite – and why he’s convinced a Major championship is within his grasp
Robert MacIntyre stands outside the clubhouse at Jumeirah Golf Estates and grades his 2024-25 season an eight-and-a-half out of ten. It’s a statement that tells you everything about where the 29-year-old Scotsman is in his career right now.
“I’d walk away happy if I stopped right now,” he says. “I’ve done almost everything I’ve dreamed of as a kid. Won Ryder Cups, home and away. I’ve won my home Open. I’ve played in every Major. I’ve done well in a lot of events. But I wouldn’t be fully satisfied. If I win a Major championship, then I can walk away from the game and go, that’s a hell of an effort.”
The CV backs him up. Runner-up at the US Open at Oakmont. Another Ryder Cup triumph, this time on hostile soil at Bethpage Black. Victory at St Andrews in the Alfred Dunhill Links, becoming the first Scot to win the event since 2005. A career-high seventh in the world rankings. A career-best sixth in the Race to Dubai.
Yet that eight-and-a-half rating? There’s still room for improvement. And that’s exactly how he wants it.
“My goal this year was to compete better in the Majors, if not win one,” he says. “The US Open came really close. The Open, I had a chance. I don’t see why not. I always say it – I don’t know how good at the game of golf I can become, but I’m at a level now that I know, at the right time, for the game to turn up at the right time, I can win one of these.”
The US Open at Oakmont in June showed everyone what MacIntyre already knew – he’s ready for the biggest stage. Starting the final round seven shots back, he was the only player in the top six to break par on Sunday, posting a 68 in conditions that chewed up and spat out most of the field.
“That’s the toughest test I’ve ever encountered on a golf course,” he told reporters after the round. “The back nine was just all about fighting. My previous rain delay comebacks haven’t been strong. Today was a day that I said to myself, ‘Why not? Why not it be me today?’”
His one-over-par total set the clubhouse target, and for a while, it looked like it might hold. Then JJ Spaun did something special – two birdies in the final two holes, capped by a 66-foot bomb at the last. MacIntyre’s reaction? “Wow,” he shouted as it dropped. No sulking. Just respect.
“I just want to win Majors now,” he said.
The $2.3 million cheque was the biggest of his career. More importantly, it booked his Ryder Cup ticket and confirmed what he already believed – he can win Majors.
“If I can have ten really good years at professional golf from now, it’s 40 Major championships,” he says, doing the maths. “I’d hope to fall across the line at some point.”
The Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black in September was a different beast. After going undefeated in Rome two years earlier, MacIntyre knew what to expect from playing for Europe. What he didn’t quite anticipate was the full force of a New York crowd with bellies full of beer and mouths full of opinions.
The Friday afternoon at the par-three 17th was particularly brutal. Hecklers forced him to step away mid-swing. He found the bunker. He and Viktor Hovland lost the match.
“I mean, you’ve got to expect it out here,” he shrugged afterwards. “It’s what happens when the bar opens at 9:30am and we get round to there. You switch club, you get even more abuse. But look, it’s part of the game, it’s part of this year’s Ryder Cup, I suppose.”
The abuse kept coming all week – “Eat another burger Bobby?”, “Milk bottle”, “Bobby Mac & Cheese”, “When you starting Ozempic?” But MacIntyre had the last laugh. After Europe’s dramatic 15-13 victory, he posted a highlight reel of his best putts with captions of the insults he’d received along with a kiss emoji.
“Keep them coming..”
He finished the week 1-1-1, halving his Sunday singles with Sam Burns as Europe won their first away match since 2012.
“As far as the Ryder Cup is concerned, that’s where I want to be,” he says. “I want to play every Ryder Cup from now until the day I retire and this is a massive step for that to happen.”
Seven days later came St Andrews. The Old Course. The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. And perhaps the most emotional win of MacIntyre’s career.
Coming off the high of Bethpage, most would’ve crashed. MacIntyre went the other way.
“I think over my career so far, I’m not shy of overplaying; I’m not shy of playing too many matches, too many games,” he says. “I start to work out my game. Coming from Ryder Cup, you get these highs and you get the lows, but at the end of the day, it’s a game of golf and I know what I’m doing. I know how to play links golf.”
The week was supposed to be chilled – playing with his amateur partner, having a bit of fun. But when Sunday came and he was in contention, the switch flicked.
“At the end of the week, I was in a good position, and then it was about, when it got to a certain stage, it was about winning the golf tournament,” he says. “To be honest, I don’t know how I’d done it, but it was just a matter of playing good golf when it mattered.”
Four-shot victory. First Scotsman to win the event in 20 years. Another moment burned into the Old Course turf forever.
The season wound down with back-to-back top-tens in the DP World Tour Play-Offs. Tied ninth in Abu Dhabi at the HSBC Championship, then 14-under for tied eighth at Jumeirah Golf Estates. He slipped from fourth to sixth in the final Race to Dubai standings – Tommy Fleetwood sneaking past him late on – but sixth was still a career-best finish.
Before teeing it up in the season finale, MacIntyre had talked about why the Earth course suits him.
“It’s a course that I enjoy playing, stacks well to my game,” he said. “You’ve got to drive it well. Tee to green has got to be good. I think that’s what I do well. And then lag putting, it’s difficult to get the ball close to some of these holes when it gets firm and fast, so it’s about lag putting, pace putting. It’s one of my strengths in my game.”
He’d finished tied fourth here in 2021. This time, tied eighth. Consistent. That word keeps coming up.
“Yeah, it’s been decent,” he says of his year, which saw him notch ten top-tens across both Tours and proving again he can handle the pressure on the biggest stages. “I’d say eight and a half out of ten. I would say it’s been fairly consistent.”
Before we wrap up, we discuss the return of the MENA Golf Tour – recently relaunched with fresh investment and a world-class management team.
MacIntyre knows what the development Tour can do. Back in October 2017, fresh from the Walker Cup, he played his first two events as a pro on the MENA Tour. Tied third in Jordan, won in Kuwait. Two months later, Challenge Tour card earned at Q-School.
“The MENA Tour was massively important,” he says. “I went out there to prepare for DP World Tour School. Facilities are always brilliant, the hospitality is great, and the test of golf was superb. I think having golf tours everywhere in the world is massively important.”
The revamped Tour ticks a lot of boxes – guaranteed prize funds, condensed schedule, players paid within 48 hours. But it’s the regional clustering that really impresses MacIntyre. “I think it’s a great idea. It’s one of my bugbears at times – sometimes the travel is carnage. But if you can get the events close enough together where the travel’s not too much, especially at that level where the money’s not as big, it’s massive. You know where we’re going; you get comfortable with a place, you then go and play tournaments. It might be the same course, might be a different course. If you can have it in specific areas, knowing that the travel’s not too much, it’s only going to help the players. And for me, it’ll probably get you a better standard of players as well.”
MacIntyre heads into the 2025-26 season knowing he’s among Europe’s best. He can win big events. He can handle the pressure.
But he wants more.
“I just want to win Majors now.”
Forty chances over the next decade…
“I don’t know how good at the game of golf I can become,” he says, “but I’m at a standard within my own game that I know, at the right time, for the game to turn up at the right time, I can win one of these.”
It doesn’t sound like a goal anymore. It sounds like a promise.
