There was no Ryder Cup hangover for Bob MacIntyre as he put the euphoria of last week’s Ryder Cup victory behind him to win his 3rd DP World Tour title at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
Four of the victorious European team were joined in the field by a host of international stars together with the top DP World Tour players to once again make this event one of the major dates on the Race to Dubai.
Spread over three courses – St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie – Bob started off strongly with a 6-under par round at Carnoustie, which is generally regarded as the toughest test of the three venues. As the weather started to worsen, he then followed this up with a second 6-under par at Kingsbarns, where the rain and wind started to bite and spread the field.
High winds resulted in the loss of a complete day of play on Saturday, and the event was shortened to a 56-hole tournament. Bob started his final round on the Old Course at St Andrews sharing the lead with South African, Richard Sterne, but still dealing with relatively high winds, Bob immediately started to draw away from the field and opened up a 4-shot lead. With a leaderboard that remained fairly constant all day, Bob maintained this lead to the end, and his round of 66 was enough to win by 4 shots over Ryder Cup teammate and defending champion, Tyrrell Hatton.
As expected, Bob received a huge support all day from the Scottish fans, and was delighted to be the first Scottish winner since Colin Montgomerie won it in 2005.
In what has been a both successful yet hectic year for Bob, he now takes a well-earned break for 4 weeks, before returning for the DP World Tour Play-Offs in Abu Dhabi and Dubai at the start of November.
The week was also a success for Grant Forrest, who continued his good form on home soil with a score of 11-under par that saw him finish just outside the top ten in 11th place.