Given all the prizes and plaudits that Robert MacIntyre has accumulated during his rise into the upper echelons of world golf, it’s easy to forget that his professional career began with the kind of painful crash that would’ve made Icarus wince.
“I think it was a 78,” said MacIntyre with a reflective smile. Or was it a grimace?
It was indeed a 78. In his first start in the paid ranks at the Jordan Ayla Golf Championship on the MENA Tour in 2017, MacIntyre, then ranked 1936th in the world, didn’t just have his back against the wall, he was almost embedded in the pointing.
After that inauspicious opening, the subsequent salvage operation just about earned him a chapter in the Book of Argyll Shipwrecks.
MacIntyre bounced back in that 54-hole event and eventually finished tied third after closing with a course-record 64 before riding the wave to Kuwait and winning in just his second outing.
The rest is history. Here at a sun-soaked Renaissance, MacIntyre is the world No 14 and defending the Genesis Scottish Open title. The boy done good, as they say.
“I was originally going out to the MENA Tour as an amateur,” recalled the 28-year-old of his initial plans for that eye-opening expedition to the Middle East.
“But I phoned up Stoddy (Iain Stoddart, his manager) and said, ‘what's the point going out here and not making any money?’ We decided to turn pro.
“I was really, really nervous. It was a different environment but it was another small step in my career. It is surreal to know the path that I've gone on and the results that I've had.”
Turning pro was another of those big decisions that MacIntyre is not afraid to make. A couple of years earlier, he quit a scholarship at a US college as he felt it would be better to continue his development on home soil.
“I'm someone who is not scared to take risks,” added the Ryder Cup player, who came close to knocking off a maiden major title in June’s US Open.
“I mean I make rash decisions on a golf course when I lose my temper and stuff. And I have made one rash decision in the last four or five years.
“That was when I was changing coach. I was working with Simon Shanks and I remember him saying, ‘I think you're firing the wrong man’.
"I phoned him two weeks later with my tail between my legs saying, "Simon, you're right. Can I come back?" And here we are still working together.”
After a hectic run of events in the USA, MacIntyre has been enjoying the auld haunts of home. He limbered up for this week’s contest with a round at Machrihanish to get himself tuned in again to the nuances of the links game.
The Oban man may be a global figure, but he probably still plays second fiddle to the great Belle Robertson in the parishes of Argyll & Bute.
“She's a legend,” said MacIntyre with a beam of reverence. “She still comes out and sees me when we're playing Machrihanish.”
The trip down to Kintyre served a valuable purpose. “Last year, before the Scottish Open, I went to see Troon and it was amazing how much the golf ball was moving in a 20-mile-an-hour wind,” added MacIntyre, who helped open the Scott Stewart Stand at the Renaissance in memory of the late MND sufferer.
“That's the reason I went to Machrihanish. I would hit the same shot that I normally hit and just watch how much the thing is going to move.
“It was just to get that feel, that sea air, the heavy wind and getting your eye seeing what you used to see. When I'm playing in America, I hit the ball up there, land it, normally on the number, and it stops. It's just a completely different style of golf.”
MacIntyre will be hoping to turn on the style again over the next few days. The former Scottish Amateur champion is in a marquee group with the world No 1, Scottie Scheffler, and Adam Scott, the man he pipped to the title with his thrilling finish 12 months ago.
Serving up a double Scotch and successfully defending the crown would certainly lead to a few glasses being raised.
“It would be unbelievable,” said MacIntyre of the prospect of going back-to-back.
“I want to keep this trophy every year until I stop playing. It's the Scottish Open. It's my flagship event after the majors. I want to win it. I hope if I don't win it, then a Scottish player wins it. It's just a special, special golf tournament with an unbelievable field.”
MacIntyre is one of the star attractions in this shimmering line-up. He may not have thought that after starting his professional career with a 78. It’s been quite a journey.
