Just seven days after helping Europe secure the Ryder Cup in New York, Bob MacIntyre pocketed £710,000 by claiming victory at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship in Scotland. MacIntyre topped a stellar field on home turf, with Ryder Cup colleagues Tommy Fleetwood, Matt Fitzpatrick, and Tyrrell Hatton also competing.
LIV Golf stars Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka were among the major names taking part in the tournament, staged across the legendary trio of St. Andrews’ Old Course, Carnoustie, and Kingsbarns. Fierce weather on Saturday forced play to be called off and the competition reduced to three rounds only, but that proved sufficient time for MacIntyre to cruise to 18-under-par, enough to defeat Hatton by four strokes for the crown. The positive atmosphere surrounded MacIntyre from his arrival at the opening tee. The World No.9, who posted a six-under-par 66 at St. Andrews on Sunday, confessed afterwards that his expectations were modest this week as he recovered from celebrating Europe’s success at Bethpage Black.
He turned up fewer than 24 hours before his opening-round tee time, and acknowledged his preparation – especially his nutrition – had been anything but perfect.
When questioned about how he found the stamina to compete this week, MacIntyre responded: “To be honest, I don’t know. I had a laugh when we were driving the buggy back down to the clubhouse.
“I’ve done everything against the book this week, from preparation, I pitched up Wednesday afternoon. I know the golf courses. Played 12 holes on Wednesday.
“The diet has not been good this week; I can confirm that. I’ve eaten plenty of takeaways, fish and chips, plenty of others.
“But sometimes when you are least expecting it, things happen. When I won in Canada [in 2024], everything that I wanted to do, I didn’t do. Yeah, here we are this week.”
The triumph marks 29-year-old MacIntyre’s second victory on British turf following his Genesis Scottish Open triumph last year, with the golfer fully aware of the significance of savouring his achievements.
However, he admitted the celebrations for this triumph are unlikely to surpass the revelry that followed Europe’s thrilling 15-13 victory over Team USA at Bethpage.
He added: “It’s brilliant. I don’t know how we’re going to celebrate after the celebration we had last Sunday. We’ll try our best. I don’t know if it will be tonight.
“But over the next couple of weeks, we’ll have a nice celebration. Look, any time you can win, it’s difficult to win, and yeah, it’s just a beautiful end to go a good week.
“Unbelievable. Any time you can win a golf tournament on these shores is special, but just delighted the way I did it. Played really nice over the three days, and yeah, here we are.”
Whilst MacIntyre and Hatton claimed the summit of the leaderboard, it proved a more subdued affair for Fleetwood and Fitzpatrick, who both ended in a tie for 21st position, trailing the winner by nine strokes. Koepka ended up tied for 15th at 10-under, while Johnson squandered an opportunity to vie for his first victory of 2025.
The double major winner was firmly in contention after an impressive eight-under-par opening round.
However, he followed this with a disappointing five-over-par 77 on Friday at Kingsbarns, with a quadruple bogey eight proving especially damaging. He concluded the week T71 at four-under.