For obvious reasons, the topic across this table is the Ryder Cup and its equivalent of Galatasaray away. But Robert MacIntyre is initially preoccupied by the abuse that has been aimed at him from closer to home.
‘I get my share,’ he tells Daily Mail Sport, and that traces to Team Europe’s WhatsApp group.
Rather unimaginatively, it’s called ‘Bethpage’, but the details within their chat suggest some common ground exists between those MacIntyre will play alongside and the New Yorkers who will heckle them.
‘I mean, you could probably guess who gets the p*** taken out of them the most,’ he adds. ‘I’m probably up there. Viktor (Hovland) as well. We get a bit from the others. But we do invite it on ourselves, I think. There’s a few of us that send some stupid things on that group.’
He’s laughing about all of it, a 29-year-old Scot having the time of his life.
Back in 2023, when Europe added Team USA to the other ruins in Rome, MacIntyre was the nervous rookie who was expected to be the weak link. He instead took 2.5 points from three matches — unruffled, unbeaten.
Robert MacIntyre enjoyed a perfect Ryder Cup debut in 2023, going unbeaten in his three matches as Europe romped to victory in Rome
He heads into this month’s tournament with far more experience, and ranked as the world No 9
At Bethpage Black, he will arrive to a different billing as the world No 9, and with a different billing comes a different dynamic. He knows it. We know it, too. If you had to bet on who those locals will target most, then the smart money will be divided between MacIntyre and Tyrrell Hatton.
I put that theory to their team-mate Matt Fitzpatrick recently and the smirk spread right across his face — the most febrile Ryder Cup since Brookline in 1999 will almost certainly see the local attention directed towards two emotional men with combustible streaks.
MacIntyre shrugs and then he smiles. ‘I couldn’t care less,’ he says.
Like the WhatsApp group, he may have brought some of what is to come on himself. If we go back to March 2024, at the Valspar Championship in Florida on the PGA Tour, he orchestrated a rather amusing stunt six months after Rome.
That meant changing the name on the back of his caddie’s bib from Mike Burrows to ‘EUR 16.5-11.5 USA’. A tweet from Team USA was not long in coming: ‘Never too soon to start thinking about Bethpage in 2025.’
Now it’s here.
‘The bib was my idea,’ MacIntyre says. ‘All mine. Mike has got no say in what was on that bib. Everyone in the crowd, or the majority anyway, loved it. I wanted to have a bit of fun. We’ll see if some of it comes back my way.
‘I honestly can’t wait. I’ve been playing the best golf of my career this year. I’m far more excited about this one than I was for Rome. It’s a different kind of feeling, because your first time is quite daunting.
MacIntyre’s customised bib for his caddie Mike Burrows at last year’s Valspar Championship
Tiger Woods (left) and Mark O’Meara lead the celebrations after winning the now infamous 1999 Ryder Cup in Brookline
‘The challenge is big. There hasn’t been an away win since 2012 (the Miracle of Medinah) and everyone has spoken a lot about the crowd.
‘I’ve obviously played in America now for two years, so I know a bit of what to expect. I’ve been getting plenty in the year.’
One example came at the BMW Championship in Maryland. MacIntyre had a four-shot lead on Scottie Scheffler going into the final round, only to be passed by the world No 1 – the locals enjoyed that. Television footage picked up a pointed heckle: ‘You’re not ready.’
That day, he wasn’t ready. He also spoke about wanting to smash his clubs. But second place in one of the biggest PGA Tour stops is not to be sniffed at. Nor are six other top 10s this year, including runner-up at the US Open and seventh at the Open.
In golf, other pros admire the sheer grit of a homebird who struggled terribly with the isolation of life in the States when he first got his PGA Tour card in 2024, and now operates his talents out of the family base in Oban, on Scotland’s west coast. Somehow, he has made those logistics work, this golfer whose complexion was never an obvious fit for Florida living.
‘I get so much stick about it,’ he says. ‘I changed my sunblock not so long ago because the last four events of the season were too hot for me. Makes me even whiter. Obviously a few in the gallery found it fun.
‘I just go along with it. I know it’s going to be loud at Bethpage and when it comes to the shouting, some people will cross a line. But if they do, they’ll get thrown out. To be honest, I am just looking forward to it. All of it. I’ll be inside the ropes with 11 guys to back me up.
‘The other thing is, when it gets really loud, you hear a roar but not the individuals. Plus, I’ve got quite a lot of boys coming from Oban. Quite a lot of mates are making the trip and loads of European fans. I’m not worried about it.’
Captain Luke Donald, centre, has fostered a strong team spirit in Team Europe
But a US team spearheaded by world No1 Scottie Scheffler represent a daunting opposition, especially on home soil
It is understood there has been an unofficial directive from the European captain Luke Donald to his players about not stoking the New York fires. His hope is that a forum that rewards home advantage like no other sport, with only two away wins in the past 13 editions, can be swung by softer rhetoric.
But the beauty of MacIntyre is that he is a man of feelings. In other words, they creep out. His heart lives on the sleeve and his thoughts find their way into the air, so he throws out another: ‘At the end of the day, if I go to Bethpage and they’re heckling me, it’s because they’re worried about me.’
The pause that follows is quite magnificent.
‘Is that not a thing that can give you some fire in your belly?’ he adds. ‘I think it is.’
Some players can shrink in the cauldron of the Ryder Cup. Others grow. With MacIntyre, who willingly encourages his caddie to call him ‘s***’ if life is tough on the course, the signs are that he can hack it. That he embraces it and finds new levels in tough environments.
His team have long been told there is ‘no room for yes men’, and that their worst offence would be a ‘fear of getting sacked’. A few harsh words about sunscreen? MacIntyre is fine with it. Just as he is willing to speak his mind about those he will be facing.
One talking point that has dominated this Cup cycle is the successful American demand to be paid to play, and whatever that represents of their priorities. MacIntyre has his view: ‘I have the badge on my chest and that’s all I want.’
He adds: ‘Growing up, I played Walker Cup and that for me was the pinnacle of the amateur game. Once you get to a certain level, your dream is to play a Ryder Cup and hopefully win a Ryder Cup. And I got to do that at home.
MacIntyre traded life Stateside for his hometown in Oban after struggling to adjust to the US
But the Scot, pictured here with his father Dougie, has felt the benefits and is ready to prove his boo-boys wrong at Bethpage Black
‘I’ve got the flavour for it. I’ve got the juices flowing there. I love it. Love it. And I cannot wait to be part of it again.
‘We were absolutely brilliant in Rome, not just on the golf course, because the guys played brilliant, but when it came to the team room, to things that were happening that week, it was magic. A team. If someone was in trouble, everyone was helping, and that’s what a team is for.’
We will find out soon enough if it adds up to a winning score on foreign soil. The teams are closely matched but noise matters and it will be noisy.
Maybe the Scottish lad coated in suncream will draw more than most. And perhaps that’s exactly what he wants.
