'Volatile' Bob MacIntyre deserves break from social media snipers heading into Dunhill Links defence

It’s become more and more noticeable this year that MacIntyre gets a bit of hammering at times in social media chats and, though people, of course, are entitled to express their own opinion about him, a lot of the stuff often being spouted is unfair.

By his own admission, the 30-year-old can behave poorly at times. “My attitude really needs to improve,” he confessed as recently as Sunday after finishing joint-tenth behind American J.J. Spaun in the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth. “I’ve got a lot to do on the mental side of the game again because I’m volatile on the golf course.”

There’s a reason for that. When he started out on the DP World Tour in 2019 after graduating from what is now called the HotelPlanner Tour, MacIntyre was always one of the cheeriest chaps you’d come across and quickly became a very popular figure indeed with everyone he met on the circuit.

The former Scottish Amateur champion kept pinching himself about where he was playing his golf because, at that point, he didn’t know where his journey would end up and, boy, has it been an exciting one so far. He’d probably have settled for winning once on the DP World Tour because, yes, that is way more difficult than some people think, and he’d probably have settled for just playing on the PGA Tour at some point in his career.

But wins in the RBC Canadian Open and the Genesis Scottish Open in quick succession were game-changers in 2024, as, of course, was making his Ryder Cup debut in Rome the previous year. He admitted straight afterwards that he’d be a happy man if that was his one and only appearance in the biennial event, but that view quickly changed.

Having also been part of a winning European team in New York last year, MacIntyre now wants to be involved in every Ryder Cup over the next 20 years or so and Luke Donald will certainly be looking for him to be on duty again at Adare Manor in Ireland in just under a year’s time.

In short, the Scot’s own expectations are now sky high compared to when he began his DP World Tour career and that’s what is behind what people are sometimes seeing and, in some cases, not liking, which, of course, was something we also saw when Andy Murray was trying to win the top titles in tennis.

Like Murray, MacIntyre needs fire in his belly to get the best out of himself and, though that can often lead to Sky Sports commentators having to apologise for some bad language at times, it’s how he is and, in fairness, this year has been a tough one for the left-hander.

In a separate interview with The Scotsman at Wentworth last week, he talked openly about “trying to balance my new life”, which was reference, of course, to becoming a dad to Findlay earlier this year and how things had been “difficult at the start” but “overall, it has been brilliant”. Despite what has been happening off the course, MacIntyre has remained in the top 20 in the Official World Golf Ranking throughout 2026 while he also made it to the Tour Championship on the PGA Tour for the third year in a row.

There have certainly been positives and a top-ten finish in last week’s Rolex Series event definitely wasn’t a sign of someone struggling, yet it told you everything about where MacIntyre is with his game at the moment when he summed up that performance and the year in general, really.

“My putting and driving this whole year have been brilliant,” he declared. “I’m trying not to be too doom and gloom, but my iron play has been abysmal this year and it was no different this week.”

He’s no longer working with Simon Shanks. A “new coach” he referred to at Wentworth is Mike Walker, who used to work with Matt Fitzpatrick and is now overseeing little brother Alex’s swing. “I don’t know where I am with that, to be honest,” replied MacIntyre to being asked about whether or not his relationship with Walker is a long-term project.

“I am going to do a biomechanics thing tomorrow (on Monday past) at Woburn. I am all in to improve. I know the level of golf I can play and it is frustrating. I saw Victor [Hovland] saying that the frustration isn’t about trying to find the perfect answer. It’s about trying to hit the shots you know you can hit. Yeah, I’m needing to figure it out. I know the level of golf I can play at.”

There you are. That’s exactly what is behind his self-confessed “volatility” at times and he also accepts that he is partly to blame for his game overall not being where he wants it to be statistically. “I tweaked the irons early on in the season and it back-fired,” he admitted on Sunday.

That’s one of the things with MacIntyre. He is an extremely honest young man and is never scared to say what’s on his mind when giving interviews. He mentioned twice at Wentworth about how he was “fizzing” and blasted what he felt was a “ridiculous rules decision”.

It’s on the back of stories written about him that some people are becoming quite nasty about him and that really needs to stop. He’s a proud Scot who is trying to be as successful as he can in his chosen sport, so let’s give him a break and cheer him every step of the way at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St Andrews next week.