BMW PGA: Bob MacIntyre's time will come in Ryder Cup, says Graeme McDowell

Bob MacIntyre has been tipped to play in multiple Ryder Cups by Grame McDowell. Picture: Mark Runnacles/Getty Images.

The 25-year-old from Oban needed a top-two finish in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth to have a chance of qualifying automatically for the European team.

He had also been among the contenders for one of captain Padraig Harrington’s three picks on Sunday night, but the dream now looks to be over for MacIntyre as far as the 43rd edition is concerned.

Despite carding a bogey-free three-under 69 at the Surrey venue, the left-hander missed the cut in the $8 million Rolex Series event by a shot on one-under.

There was no hiding MacIntyre’s disappointment as he faced up to his race almost definitely being run, but, according to Graeme McDowell, the Scot will eventually become a Ryder Cup player.

“He showed me that it’s only a matter of time until he plays in a Ryder Cup,” said the 2010 US Open champion, who, as one of his assistants, was tasked by Harrington to keep an eye on MacIntyre in the same group for the opening two rounds at Wentworth.

“Robert makes a lot of birdies. You know, he makes mistakes, like we all did when we were young. It is very hard to have the full polished, finished article, but he is very close.

“We were talking about Ryder Cup captains and I said that there is a Ryder Cup in Ireland in 2027 (at Adare Manor) that I had my beady eye on and I said to him, ‘hopefully I’ll be giving you a slap on the back and sending you on Sunday leading the team’.

“It won’t be his first Ryder Cup in 2027. I think he’s a quality player. I love him. I think he’s got a great attitude. He’s super-talented. He’s just young and aggressive and that equals birdies and mistakes.”

The 2023 Ryder Cup is in Rome before Bethpage Black in New York stages the 2025 match.

“For sure and he knows that,” replied McDowell, one of the European heroes at Gleneagles in 2014, to being asked if MacIntyre’s time will come if it’s not to be for him on this occasion.

“I think he has a lot of belief in himself. He’s a very grounded individual and I love playing with him. He’s a great lad and he impresses me.”

MacIntyre was “disappointed” about facing the prospect of an early exit from the final qualifying event, having been on Harrington’s radar throughout the process and regularly producing some big performances.

“I thought I played really well again, bogey free, and I don’t know how to get off this train I’m on right now,” he said. “I hit one bad shot I felt out there. I’m just getting battered right now and the frustrations are starting to build.

“That could have been an easy six, seven under par. If I hole my medium range putts, some days you hole them, some days you miss them. But, if I hole them people are saying, that’s a decent score, you deserve that. But three-under par?

“It’s a golf course that suits me absolutely perfectly and it’s starting to drive me mental now. I’m going to go away from here and think about what to do.

“I feel I’m in the right place physically and mentally but it’s starting to get to me. It’s nothing to do with the physical thing or the swing.

“You need little sparks that get you going and I’ve just not got any sparks this last four or five weeks.”

Calum Hill, who needed a win at Wentworth to get into Harrington’s team automatically, also missed the cut despite a second-round 67, having given himself a mountain to climb after an opening 78.

“Frustration,” said recent Cazoo Classic winner Hill of his mood. “It’s because golf is generally pretty easy, but I just keep having those odd days when I’m useless, which is a bit annoying.

“Woods yesterday were shocking, my 3 wood is a dog, I can’t get it in play. The golf’s not bad, there’s lots of good stuff and loads of birdies, but the crap is crap.”

Referring to his three starts since that breakthrough victory on the circuit at London Club in Kent, he added: “One top ten, one finish in the 30s playing crap and then this one.

“It’s just annoying. I time my fractional slumps at the Scottish Open and this week. Other guys seem to time their slumps for the smaller ones and do better in these. I’d rather just be good all the time.

“There’s good rounds, two rounds when I had nine birdies and that’s not bad golf. It’s just throwing in the destructive ones.”

Hill’s next event will be on home soil in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship and he said:

“It’ll sort itself out. My aim is to finish as high as I can on the Race to Dubai, I’m looking for a big final six events.”

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