Time on the side of the rising Scottish star MacIntyre

Robert MacIntyre had made a meteoric rice since becoming a professional in 2017

After leading the field early on the eighth of the European Open in Hamburg on Sunday, Bob MacIntyre reached the 18th tee in need of an eagle in the par five to force a play-off with Paul Casey. He bombed his ride along the left side of the fairway and then fearlessly went to the pin with his second one, straight across the water and on the front of the well surface.

All day long he had beaten pretty putts that refused to fall – and here was another one. He tapped the bird and again finished second. It was the third such finish in its rookie year.

As he walked down the green, he allowed himself to smile. The second was not what he wanted, but he could easily put it in context. Just turned 23, this has been a pretty brilliant season for the hugely impressive boy from the idiosyncratic golf course of Glencruitten in Oban.

He tells a story about his home base that makes him smile. "It's wild, a par 62, up and down mountains, short and tough and tight. There are two green keepers and one of them is my father. As a child there would be 12 or more of us young boys playing small chipping games Who can turn it the most? Who can find that small hole between the trees? Who can cut it from the top of a tree root and approach it closest?

"We learned without even knowing that we learning. It was just really fun and very relaxed. Del came once [Derek Ritchie, who along with director Iain Stoddart are the men behind his management company, Bounce] and he is at the clubhouse and he says: & this place reminds me of something & # 39 ;. All the old boys were chatting there. Great stories. Then Del says: & # 39; I know! It's just like The Clansman from Still Game! & # 39; Brilliant. He meant it as a compliment. It is very relaxed, very friendly, no pretensions about itself. My kind of place. "

& # 39; I have a helmet and a large hockey glove & # 39;

MacIntyre still lives at home, but occasionally his growing fame can invite him to see what it is like He recently spent a night in Loch Lomond, walked into his regal bedroom, looked at his bed with more pillows and cushions than he had ever seen in his life and wondered, "How do you achieve that do you sleep in it? "

He will get used to it soon enough. He may not have taken away the trophy on Sunday, but he had the soothing balm of a check of nearly 150,000 euros for previously paid days of £ 259,302 for second place on the British Masters in May, 333,330 euros for second place at the Made in Denmark event the same month and 277,950 euros for his way to sixth place at the Open Championship in July – the first major of his career.

MacIntyre has won nearly 1.2 million euros in its debut season, has just entered the world's top 100 for the first time in 13th place in the European Tour & # 39; s Race to Dubai and is almost nailed to rookie from to win the year, a title won by Jon Rahm and Brooks Koepka in recent seasons: the higher he climbs, the more prestigious events he plays, the more money he earns, the bigger his profile becomes. describe now n? "Quick," he replies.

Then let's slow it down. Although he loves golf, you get the impression that MacIntyre is happiest when it comes to home. He is very proud of Oban and his people, the sense of community and the inherent kindness. His first sporting love was shiny and it remains a passion and a release from the pressure of the daily job. He always has his stick in the trunk of the car, just in case.

MacIntyre comes closer to a first win on the European Tour

Shinty is in blood, as he explained: "I would be training tonight [with Oban Celtic, the team his dad helps to manage] but I do this instead. Looking at the weather [grey and miserable] I may have avoided a bullet I have a helmet and a large hockey glove that I wear to protect my hand, which needs to be protected because it is a tough, heavy sport People ask me about the dangers of getting an injury and, yes, it is possible, but I will never stop playing.

"It takes my mind away from golf. I just got there with the guys playing a very small game of shinty. I remember shooting in 78, 77 and missing the cut in Morocco in April, and when I got home I thought: & # 39; I don't really enjoy this, it's all golf, golf, golf & # 39 ;. It was more on the mental side than anything else. I was tired and had to do something else – and that was shiny. I talked to my mother and father about it, started training again and finished second in the British Masters in my next event. "

Essential for the discussion about what home means to him, the boys, Thomas, 12 years old, and Dan [otherwise known as Dan The Man] are six years old. The MacIntyres are a foster family and, although Thomas and Dan are not his blood relatives , he calls them his brothers. "They are," he says. "They are family." "

How much does he know about their back story?" I know as much as I need to know, "he says." We had two children prior to Thomas and Dan and I knew the back story there and I felt it affected me when I saw their parents. I didn't want to know everything. I know fragments. I know enough.

"I can't imagine what life would look like without it. For example, I think they are quieter. They were brilliant. I was on FaceTime to Dan there. He would be in the closet where we put the costumes love the children. He wore a white beard. & # 39; How are you, Dan? & # 39; "I am not Dan, I am Santa." OK, Santa, are you all right? ""

MacIntyre played with Ricki Fowler and Rory McIlroy at the Scottish Open

Nobody should underestimate the importance of the boys for the rise of their big brother in the golf world. "Thomas is older," says MacIntyre. "He likes a lot of sports – football, golf, shinty. The couple causes chaos, especially Dan. Absolutely brilliant. Then it's like Duracell Bunny. He just never stops.

" At the Scottish Open, he was in the day care center a bit because you wouldn't know what he would do if you let him go. He is in the crèche for 10 minutes and he clearly does not have it, so without knowing it, because I am on the first tee at this stage, he calls my mother and says: & # 39; I don't like this & # 39 ; So my mother went to get it.

"I play with Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler and I'm really nervous. I mean, I get nervous on the first tee at Glencruitten when I look around and I see 15 members looking through the curtains at me, but the Scottish Open was of a different level: on the first tee I was so nervous that I was worried that I could put the tee in the ground, but I hit a birdie putt on the first green and that calms me down and then I hear I call someone: & # 39; Go, Bob! & # 39; and I think, & # 39; I know that voice & # 39; I turn around and see Dan, bright as day with his ginger hair and I look at Rory and Rickie and I think, & # 39; no no, what's going to happen here? "

& # 39; He didn't have a scooby who I was & # 39;

Dan was at its best, even if Bob's game was not quite there. He missed the cut and kicked on to Portrush for the Open. "I love Phil Mickelson and one day, when he entered the dressing room, I walked out," MacIntyre recalls. "I just stopped and let him go. I said: & # 39; Are you okay? & # 39; and he nodded rather at me. He didn't have a scooby who I was."

Portrush was a crucial moment for him. His first major, the largest field he had ever participated in, the largest crowd, the most crowded. The sound of that week blew him away.

He says he will never forget the sound of the McIlroy people on Friday when he came down in an attempt to cut. MacIntyre was busy putting green and a roar would go up from a distance to signal a McIlroy bird, then another roar and another. MacIntyre said he had never heard such a shout when the Northern Irishman was waving, but not as he knew it.

MacIntyre was not shocked that he played well that week, but he was massively surprised that he finished sixth. "I had a birdie at 18 and the weather was really coming in," he says. "At that time I was in the rankings. I went to the merchandise shop to buy some stuff and the rain got worse. It bounced off the roof. I walked through the store and heard the wind and rain outside and went, & # 39; you beauty! & # 39; "

After the Open, he missed some cuts in Sweden and Switzerland, but bounced back in Germany last week. He led with four on Friday night and was still one out of eight in the back nine on Sunday when Casey started to draw in the kind of putts that refused to fall for MacIntyre.

"I am disappointed, but we are getting closer," he said. No doubt about that. With three seconds and a sixth in the last five months, the first win cannot be far away. And neither are his brothers. Thomas will be euphoric if and when it happens. And then? Lord only knows what Dan The Man will do. The thought of it makes him smile. He is talented and modest and now has a lot to smile about.