TRUE GRIT

Mark Townsend catches up with fiercely determined Scot Robert MacIntyre and finds that fame and fortune have yet to change him

What's not to love about Bob MacIntyre? In among the millions of pounds currently being thrown around the game, we have a 26-year-old two-time winner whose grasp of life's fundamentals remains very much intact. MacIntyre possesses the rare quality of having a particularly sound handle on all matters - what's right and what's clearly wrong - and he's not afraid to speak up for what he believes in when the need arises.

Other pros might trot out the usual cliches, but MacIntyre will tell it like it is. If you're looking for a dictionary definition for 'golfer who is grounded', the Scot would offer a very good starting point.

Every time a player turns up late to an interview or cancels at the last minute, my mind quickly moves to Macintyre. At the start of his rookie season in 2019, on what was then the European Tour, he was finishing off a practice round in Abu Dhabi on the Monday night and my day was coming to a close, idly watching how players were playing the par-5 18th as the sun was about to quickly set.

We had made a loose arrangement to meet on the verandah of the iconic clubhouse at 10am the next day, which, according to general tour etiquette, would be rated a 50/50 chance of seeing him again that week. My 9am meet-up, who was staying on site just a regular 7-iron from the clubhouse, had slept through, but Macintyre was there ten minutes early.

Over the course of the next half hour, he talked about his hometown of Oban, shinty, Glencruitten Golf Club and its par of 62, how his mum and dad had become foster parents, the TaylorMade Aeroburner 3-wood he'd been using since he was 17 and how he still drove his mum's Chevrolet Spark, which barely accommodated his golf clubs. Down to earth doesn't even come close to doing it justice.