If Robert MacIntyre keeps going at this rate, he’ll have more opportunities knocking than Hughie Green.
A wonderful debut season on the European Tour ended with the Oban left-hander winning the circuit’s rookie of the year award as he became the first Scot since Marc Warren in 2006 to earn that cherished prize.
MacIntyre, who finished 14th in the season-ending DP World Tour Championship yesterday and was 11th on the overall Race to Dubai rankings, has enjoyed a startling rise up the golfing order.
This time last year he was 300th on the world rankings. Now the 23-year-old is knocking on the door of the world’s top 50 and all the delicious odds and sods that can come with such a lofty perch.
“I’ve been shooting at the top 50 in the world for the last four or five weeks,” he said. “We’ve fallen just short but the season’s opened up doors for me, it’s opened up WGC events.
“Next year, if I continue to do what I’m doing on the golf course, then in my own head, it’s a matter of time.
“If we can keep improving then Ryder Cups and top 50 in the world are all achievable.”
READ MORE: Jon Rahm enjoys double desert delight in Dubai
MacIntyre, with three runners-up finishes on the European Tour as well as a share of sixth in The Open during a memorable 2019, had been embroiled in a two-horse race for the rookie prize with American, Kurt Kitayama.
“I’ve enjoyed the battle,” added the former Scottish Amateur champion, who joins a rookie of the year roll of honour that includes celebrated compatriots like Bernard Gallacher, Sam Torrance, Sandy Lyle and Colin Montgomerie.
“The last few weeks have been hard because I’ve been looking over my shoulder until last week when I got overtaken.
“But I could only control what I can control and that was putting some good golf shots on display and I finally managed to put in two good rounds this week to seal it off.
“”This (rookie of the year) is what we set out to do. Today we’ve finally achieved it and now I’m absolutely over the moon.
“This year is probably the best I’ve ever played and I’m going to enjoy it.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here