Bob MacIntyre not a shoo-in for Ryder Cup but he's back in rookie race for Rome

I’d barely walked into the media centre at Royal Liverpool at the start of Open week when the inevitable question was asked: You must have been bitterly disappointed about yesterday?

Bob MacIntyre acknowledges the crowd on the 18th green after finishing the final round of the Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in East Lothian. Picture: Andrew Redington/Getty Images.

That was reference, of course, to Bob MacIntyre being denied what would have been a famous win in the Genesis Scottish Open by Rory McIlroy’s birdie-birdie finish at The Renaissance Club and my answer is worth sharing. Yes, it stung a little bit to see someone you write about on a regular basis and, as a consequence, have got to know well over the past few years having come so close to landing a momentous victory on home soil only to have a dagger driven through his heart, but ‘no’ I most certainly wasn’t disappointed.

How could you be when McIlroy, one of best players to ever grace the game, has produced an unbelievable finish – hitting a 5-iron to four-and-half feet at the 17th then a 2-iron stinger to around 11 feet at the last – to claim his first success on Scottish soil? Make no mistake, having McIlroy’s name on the trophy is fantastic for the event and, in a terrific early boost for the 2024 edition, the Northern Irishman has already committed to being back on the East Lothian coast in 12 months’ time to defend his title.

On the strength of this effort, MacIntyre can feel confident that his dream of winning the Genesis Scottish Open will come true one day, but, for the time being, let’s reflect on the Oban man having been a winner on Sunday in all but name. His closing 64 in a wind gusting up to 35mph was a hugely-impressive effort, as acknowledged by McIlroy. “If he can shoot 64 in a day like today, he can do anything,” said the new world No 2 of the Scot. As for MacIntyre’s wonder shot – a 3-wood from 212 yards to set up a birdie at the 72nd hole – it will be talked about and replayed for a long time to come and rightly so, even though it didn’t land the reward he was hoping for.

Since he started out on the DP World Tour in 2019 – the year he was crowned as Rookie of the Year – MacIntyre has been a popular figure in the game and not just in Scotland. There’s just something about him that instantly makes him likeable. He was cheered every step of the way in Sunday’s final round and, even though he didn’t know how things were going to pan out at that time, it was down to that sheer volume of support that he was overcome with emotion.

As a kid, his dream had been to play in his national Open and to give himself a chance to win it after playing the way he did on this occasion is something he can feel proud of, no matter what happens in numerous other appearances he’ll make in the tournament.

I’ll be honest here. Despite winning the Italian Open last year, I reckon MacIntyre’s chances of playing in the Ryder Cup in Rome in September were on the thin side a week ago, but not now. On the back of this finish, he’s jumped into one of the automatic spots, with McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Viktor Hovland, Tyrrell Hatton and Matthew Fitzpatrick being the other players on course to make Luke Donald’s team without needing a captain’s pick.

This week’s Open is another chance for the players vying to be involved in the Italian capital to either jump into one of those automatic berths or produce something that could sway Donald and his assistants – Thomas Bjorn, Edoardo Molinari and Nicolas Colsaerts – when it comes to finalising his six captain’s picks.

It’s commonly thought that McIlroy, Rahm, Hovland, Hatton, Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Rose and Shane Lowry will form the backbone of the home team, no matter what happens, over the next weeks, with a strong possibility the four others will all be rookies.

As things stand, MacIntyre is battling it out with German Yannik Paul, Pole Adrian Meronk, Danish twins Nicolai and Rasmus Højgaard, Irishman Seamus Power, Austrian Sepp Straka and Frenchman Victor Perez.

After The Open, the DP World Tour has a two-week summer holiday before events in Northern Ireland, the Czech Republic and Switzerland conclude the qualifying campaign on the DP World Tour, though the final standings could also be impacted by the FedEx Cup Play-Offs on the PGA Tour.

With huge points on offer at Hoylake, there’s still time for someone to throw a spanner in the works, but, at the same time, the inaugural Hero Cup earlier in the year in Abu Dhabi was held for a reason and there’s a strong chance that the rookies will have been involved in that extremely useful exercise.

Statistically, Nicolai Højgaard was the star performer in that event, but, in addition to giving a good account himself on the golf course, MacIntyre was also a bit hit off it as a result of the way he conducted himself in the team room and team chemistry, of course, has been a big part in Europe’s success in the Ryder Cup.

Donald’s team will be announced on 4 September - the day after the Omega European Masters concludes - and, while it would be wrong to say that MacIntyre is now a ‘shoo in’, his timing couldn’t have been better in terms of reminding lots of people that he’s a special talent and someone Scotland should be proud to call one of its sporting sons.