Thanks to his superb play on the DP World Tour a season ago, which included a runner-up finish to Rory McIlroy at the Genesis Scottish Open, Robert MacIntyre earned PGA Tour membership for the 2024 season.
But playing on the PGA Tour has not been the best experience for MacIntyre, compared to the comfortable confines of the DP World Tour.
“It’s completely different,” MacIntyre explained to Bunkered, a Scottish golf publication.
“When you’re on the DP World Tour, it’s very friendly. Everyone is together. We’re all traveling the world. If we’re struggling with certain things, we speak to folk around us.”
So far this season, MacIntyre, who played in his first Ryder Cup in 2023 and did not lose a match, has only two top-10 finishes to his name. He tied for sixth at the Mexico Open and eighth at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
But he missed the cut at The Players Championship and did not qualify for The Masters. He also has not met the criteria to play in any Signature Event so far this season. Instead, he tied for 32nd at the Puerto Rico Open, held when Scottie Scheffler triumphed at Bay Hill.
MacIntyre will also play at the Myrtle Beach Classic this week, not the Wells Fargo Championship, which bodes an elite 69-player field.
“You come out here to the PGA Tour, and it’s all so unfamiliar,” added MacIntyre.
“There’s less chatting. There’s less dinners. There’s just less of that big family feel that you get on the European Tour.”
The European Ryder Cup team specifically prides itself on team camaraderie and chemistry. By extension, those principles spread the DP World Tour, where the top European players rise through the ranks.
“Sitting in player dining, you do it in Europe and you’ve got all the Scottish boys, you’ve got all the British boys,” MacIntyre added.
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“A lot of the European guys, if you’re sitting on your own, they will come and join you… Out [on the PGA Tour], because you don’t know many folks, you don’t know them in that same kind of depth, they don’t come to sit with you. It does become a lonely place on the golf side of it.”
The golf courses are obviously different, too.
“It is what it is. You’ve got to get on with it. There are a lot of other things. New golf courses,” MacIntyre explained.
“Over here, they are pretty much all new, and then you’ve got the different grasses. Obviously, I was not brought up playing a lot of Bermuda, grainy grass, pitching, putting. It’s just completely different. But it’s a learning curve.”
Hopefully, MacIntyre’s experience of playing golf in the United States will improve as time passes. But for now, the Scotsman continues to struggle to grow accustomed to the difficulties of American professional golf—something that numerous European players have toiled with before and likely will do so in the future.
Yet, the Scotsman knows that plenty of opportunity awaits within the 50 states.
“It’s a great place to play golf. It’s obviously where the best players in the world are. It’s where you can make more money,” MacIntyre said.
“It’s a different environment for me, but I’m just trying to enjoy it as much as I can and learn as much as I can, week in and week out.”
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Be sure to check out @_PlayingThrough for more golf coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko as well.