Bob MacIntyre admits 'life is more important than work' as he weighs up US move

Bob MacIntyre says it will be “all in” if decides to set up a base in the United States and chase a major as his next goal after achieving a “lifetime” one by becoming a Ryder Cup winner.

Bob MacIntyre pictured at St Andrews during the third and final round of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Picture: Octavio Passos/Getty Images.

But, as he prepared to take a break at home in Oban and “reflect” on helping Europe regain the trophy by picking up two-and-a-half points from three in Rome, the 27-year-old admitted for a second time that he could be prepared to put “life before golf”.

MacIntyre has never made any secret of how important family life and being at home is to him and the same goes for playing shinty for his beloved Oban Celtic, the team managed by his dad, Dougie. He acknowledges that being based on the west coast of Scotland has its disadvantages, primarily the weather and the impact it can have on productive practice when the left-hander is back home in between tournaments. However, that alone won’t be the deciding factor when he sits down with his manager Iain Stoddart, performance coach Stuart Morgan and swing coach Simon Shanks to decide what comes next as he closes in on securing a PGA Tour card for next season through the DP World Tour’s Race to Dubai.

“Yes I am,” said MacIntyre, speaking at the end of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship of being ready for a break. “I need to reflect. I need to think about a few things now and really put in stone what’s going to happen from here on in. I need to set another goal that will make me get up in the morning and go and practice. I achieved my one goal for the year and I need to reset – whether it’s a goal for two years’ time, I don’t know. I just need to have a sit down and a phone call with the whole team and reset.”

Is he unsure about setting up a base in the US? “I’ve achieved a lifetime goal,” he added. “I’ve always said I could happily retire after it. Obviously, at 27 I’m not going to retire because there’s plenty more in the tank. It’s about resetting the goal. Is it about winning a major now? Is that my goal? If it is, then how do I achieve that? America is the big one, but I’m such a family guy and Oban is my base and I don’t know if I want to move my whole base to America. That’s what the phone call is going to be about. I’ve got a reasonable idea of what I’m going to do. But there’s a lot to sacrifice. I play golf because I have dreams of achieving some great things in the game. I just need to re-evaluate what my next goal is, what gets me out of bed and chasing my dreams. I did it this year by chasing that Ryder Cup spot, so the phone call is just going to be a reset, nothing drastic, but obviously I’ve got some big decisions coming up.”

Nicolas Colsaerts, who mentored MacIntyre during the Ryder Cup, described his spell on the PGA Tour after being part of the ‘Miracle at Medinah’ in 2012, as a “disaster” while US life also hasn’t been for other European players over the years. “He’s someone I will speak to,” said MacIntyre of Colsaerts “I’ve spoken to Tommy [Fleetwood], everyone. Some guys love it and some guys hate it. I totally get that. I did college out there for a year and a half and I enjoyed my time there.

“It’s just working out where’s best to go. Realistically, it is not about me, it’s about my family. Where’s best for them to get to as quickly as possible? Because I struggle to be away on my own for a long period of time. That’s why I went back to play shinty. I struggled at the start of my career. I had made something like 15 cuts from 17 events but I was still, like, ‘I’ve had enough of this’. It’s just about finding the right place, the right area for me.

“What’s more important, work or life? That’s the way I see it and my life is more important than work. I’m a realist and if the pinnacle of my golfing career was the Ryder Cup then so what, it’s a great journey. I know in my own head that that’s not the pinnacle, it’s not the peak where I want to finish. But I don’t know if I’m willing to sacrifice everything I need to sacrifice to achieve what I know want to achieve in golf."

Asked if it would need to be a case of being all in if he decides to set up a base in the States, he admitted: “ One hundred percent. I won’t do a half-measure job. If I’m going to do this, there’s going to be results coming on the back of it and it’s going to be all in.”

Is commuting across the Atlantic an option? “I’ve spoken to a lot of guys and it’s difficult to do it,” he admitted. “I’ll still have a base. There’s a lot going on at home, some great things. I can play on the PGA Tour and do that from home. But the PGA Tour is not my peak, not where I want to finish. If I’m going to go and give it my best shot it will be to try to win major championships.

“Just now I feel I can win one major living where I live and that’s The Open. If the conditions hit, then I’m used to it. But I need to have guaranteed weather where I know I’ll be practising. I’m going to go back to Oban this week and there’s potential that I don’t hit a golf ball outside for six days. That’s the reality about where I live.”

Matthew Fitzpatrick, one of MacIntyre’s Ryder Cup team-mates and the newly-crowned Dunhill Links champion, was living in Sheffield when he made his DP World Tour breakthrough before moving to the US and taking his game to the next level by winning a major and breaking into the world’s top ten. “I think it’s difficult and it’s different for different people,” he said of the decision MacIntyre is mulling over. “I feel very lucky in the respect that my parents travelled quite a lot and I was well-travelled as a kid, so I knew what America was about and I kind of always had my sights on being in America even when I was young as I enjoyed it so much there.

“I think you have to buy into it, for one. It is hard at first. You have got to get used to it. You’ve got to pick a base and try and settle somewhere. I was speaking to him about it this week. I think he has a tough decision because it is hard for him to pick where he wants to be and is the right thing. But I think you’ve got to commit to it. You’ve got to be all in. I don’t think you can be doing it back and forth as the travel is too hard that way. It is an important time in his career to be making this decision, but you saw how he played at the Ryder Cup and there’s no doubt he can do it.”

MacIntyre is sitting out this week’s Madrid Open before returning to action next week in the Andalucia Masters at Sotogrande. “Yes, one week off and then the final four events,” he said of then heading to Qatar and South Africa before the season-ending event in Dubai next month. “I’m looking forward to it because there’s a lot I can still achieve. I want to get a win under my belt this year. I came close early in the season (finishing second to Rory McIlroy in the Genesis Scottish Open), but I’ve not really come close since.”