There was one exchange during Robert MacIntyre’s second appearance at the Masters in 2022 that encapsulates his rapid progression. The Scot was amid a battling third round when an errant drive settled in an unplayable lie in the trees on the 11th hole.
“I was looking at the ball going, ‘This is dead’ and Mike [Thomson], my caddie at the time, said, ‘You need to go back to the tee and hit another one’. I was like, ‘Mate, I’m not going back there. Tiger is in the group behind’,” MacIntyre says, laughing, before recalling how Woods had stared straight through him on the putting green a few days earlier. “I mean, it’s silly to think about now but that’s just the way it was back then. Now it’s almost like, he’s there but watch out, I’m hitting here.”
Few golfers not named Scottie Scheffler can reasonably claim to have enjoyed their past 18 months on the golf course more. Since the Ryder Cup in 2023, MacIntyre has clinched his maiden PGA Tour title at the Canadian Open, fulfilled his childhood dream of winning the Scottish Open, and risen to No17 in the world rankings.
After 12th and 23rd-place finishes at the Masters, he is a credible outsider in the eyes of the bookmakers, and a stronger contender in his own. “I’ve had decent finishes this year [three top-tens in his past five starts]. I like my chances anywhere in the world. I don’t care whether it’s in Oban or Augusta, I’m a big believer that, when I’m playing good golf, I’ve got as much of a chance as anyone of winning that Green Jacket,” MacIntyre says before his return to Augusta National this week.
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Such a rich vein of confidence traces back to that giddy week in Rome, when MacIntyre was so riven with nerves on the Friday afternoon that he “honestly thought I’m not going to be able to tee up this ball”. Short of his best in the afternoon session alongside Justin Rose, the Europe captain Luke Donald kept his faith and MacIntyre steeled himself brilliantly to finish the week unbeaten with 2.5 points.
“I had tears in my eyes warming up, tears in my eyes when I was walking underneath the stand. It was difficult, but that’s what you dream of, and I didn’t just play in a Ryder Cup, we won the Ryder Cup,” he says. “I think that week just made me realise I can compete against the best in the world on any given day. It was massive in terms of just having that belief.”
The impact is obvious but MacIntyre’s results disguised his struggles adjusting to life on the PGA Tour. He moved to Orlando at the start of 2024 after earning his card but the culture grated and he desperately missed the comforts of Oban, his salt-of-the-earth town in Argyll and Bute, on the west coast of Scotland, with a population of only 8,000. “When I got into the Players [Championship, where he missed the cut], I’d already been on the road for seven weeks, and all I wanted to do was go home. I really wasn’t enjoying it. It was no different when I came out [on the DP World Tour] in 2019. I had to work out what makes me tick,” he says.
One trick has been a freezer box filled with “the stupid simple things that make life out here feel more like home”. The essentials include portions of mince and potatoes and a healthy supply of brown sauce, but preserving normality back in Oban, where MacIntyre can “shut off the circus”, has been the key. His parents still live behind the 12th tee at Glencruitten, the par-62 course where he honed his talent. The week after moonlighting as his son’s caddie and their tearful celebrations on the 18th green in Canada, dad Dougie returned to his duties as the head greenskeeper.
“I go home and get treated as Bob, the young boy that’s grown up in Oban, not Robert MacIntyre the golfer. It’s just a different mindset,” he says. “My dad just wants an easy life, no stress. He’s as tough as boots and you don’t see much emotion from him — but that wasn’t just my dream, it was his.
“He was a great sportsperson — football, golf, shinty, you name it, my old man was brilliant, just a naturally talented sportsman — but he didn’t have the finances, as a lot of people didn’t [in Oban], to chase it. I think his dream was to give his kids the opportunity he never had.”
MacIntyre’s parents took in foster children when he was growing up to give them a better chance, too, which further ingrained his grounded outlook. “It just made you realise how lucky you are to have a loving and caring — not just a family but a community. These kids were the lucky ones that have been captured by the system. There are a lot of kids out there that are still being abused and treated like shit. Even when I have a bad day on the golf course, it’s like, ‘Is it a bad day?’ When I look back at some of the things I’ve actually seen, it breaks my heart,” he says.
MacIntyre’s celebrity has been harder to quell since his dramatic victory at the Scottish Open in July. A year after he was agonisingly denied at the death by Rory McIlroy, he benefited from an immense slice of luck when a sprinkler head in the deep rough afforded him a free drop on the 16th hole of his final round. An eagle there propelled MacIntyre to glory, becoming the first Scot to win the trophy since Colin Montgomerie in 1999, and the celebrations continued long into the night.
“It was the worst hangover ever, not even close,” he says. “I was with my family and friends in the hospitality tent for six or seven hours. I think we ran out of champagne. There were a few pitstops on the drive to Troon [for the Open] but that one deserved a full-blown party.”
Amid all the patriotic fervour, MacIntyre announced that he would move back to Oban permanently. “My rent is up in August and I don’t think it’ll be getting renewed, to be honest. There’s nothing like home,” he said. The 28-year-old tends to avoid the fanfare of the local pubs now, but he will still watch his childhood friends play shinty — Dougie still helps to coach the team — and have them round to his house for beers afterwards.
Once a much-needed release from the pressures of golf — MacIntyre took up shinty again in 2019 as an antidote to the loneliness of his new life on tour — he rarely plays himself any more due to the risk of injury, but the friendships forged at the Ryder Cup have helped to mitigate any missing sense of camaraderie.
“I don’t care what sport you play, there are always alpha males in the locker room, but that week just created a different bond,” MacIntyre says. “I never thought I’d be as close to Jon Rahm as I am now. I played with him in the Dubai Desert Classic a few months ago and it wasn’t like I was playing with [two-times major winner] Jon Rahm, it was like I was playing with a good friend.”
Along with his box of frozen treats, the tips gleaned from the three-times grand-slam tennis champion Andy Murray during the pro-am at Wentworth in September have also helped MacIntyre navigate the long stints in the US when playing back-to-back events. “I asked him what the biggest thing he learnt about recovery was during his career and he said sleep. I started wearing a Whoop band for a while to track certain things I’m eating and drinking. I absolutely love a pizza but I won’t have one during tournament weeks any more, I won’t drink fizzy juices after a certain time. It’s those little things,” he says.
Sandy Lyle, the only Scotsman to win the Masters, has been another regular source of advice. The fact that this is the first time MacIntyre has qualified for Augusta since shrinking in Woods’s vicinity three years ago is a reminder that it has hardly been plain sailing, and there have been several caddie changes and the odd temper tantrum too, but there can be no doubting he returns as a different kind of competitor.
“I was playing with Rory on the Sunday at Bay Hill [for the Arnold Palmer Invitational] last month and I said to my caddie, Mike [Burrows], ‘I feel nervous’. He goes to me, ‘What’s the biggest golf tournament outside of the majors for you?’ I’m like, ‘the Scottish Open’, and he says, ‘Mate, you’ve won it’. And I think about that more than you would ever expect. I want to play in the best tournaments in the world and in Ryder Cups for the rest of my career, but if I retire tomorrow, I can walk away from this game going, ‘I achieved some of the things I dreamt of as a kid.’ ”
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