No shortcuts, quiet graft, and snatching big moments when they matter. Ever since the Scot fought his way into Luke Donald’s Ryder Cup team for Rome in 2023, the left-hander from Oban has looked every bit the player many hoped he would become.

The best part. He has done it while being himself. Which makes him an easy bloke to support.

That week in Italy was arguably the turning point. MacIntyre didn’t coast his way into the side; he earned it the hard way, stacking weeks of golf on top of each other to try and make that team. And once he was there, he delivered. Two wins and a half from three matches, including a Sunday singles victory over Wyndham Clark, helped Europe reclaim the Cup.

The following season proved it wasn’t a sugar hit. MacIntyre went to the big show and won twice on the PGA Tour, first at the RBC Canadian Open and then an emotional national Open triumph in the Genesis Scottish Open. It was a clear marker of his progression and proof that his game stands up against the very best.

MacIntyre is 2/2 in Ryder Cups. PHOTO: Getty Images.

When the majors roll around, MacIntyre has shown he has all the qualities to contend in them. Oakmont at the U.S. Open is as unforgiving as golf gets, but MacIntyre stayed the course with great patience. A closing 68 brought him into second place, just two shots behind the winner, JJ Spaun. It was another reminder that he is right at home in the cauldron of major championship golf.

By September, he was a walk-up start to don Ryder Cup colours at Bethpage Black. Europe hadn’t won on American soil in over a decade, yet there they were, celebrating a 15–13 victory in front of a hostile crowd. MacIntyre contributed again, steady and dependable. The crowd’s barracking was no issue for the boy from Oban.

He returned home to Scotland a week later and capped it all off by winning the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews. For the first time since Colin Montgomerie twenty years ago, a Scot lifted that trophy. It felt fitting. A homegrown player, in control of his game, claiming one of the most prestigious European Tour titles.

What makes MacIntyre’s ascent resonate with the common man is that he hasn’t changed. He’s still the same lad from Oban, direct and genuine, proud of where he comes from and clear about who he is. In a sport often weighed down by polish and ego, his honesty and wit stands out.

He doesn’t talk like a superstar. He addresses the media masses as if he has a pint of Tennent’s keeping company with a coaster on the polished wood of a Scottish pub, and the reporters are the publican, pouring his next. This is a refreshing difference that the fans are growing to cherish.