Luke Donald highlights Bob MacIntyre 'grit' at start of Ryder Cup qualifying campaign

MacIntyre made his debut against the Americans in the transatlantic tussle in Rome in 2023 under Donald’s captaincy before making the Englishman’s line up again for a successful trophy defence in New York last year.

Admittedly helped by having a strong partner in his matches on the opening two days, the Oban man finished unbeaten over three games in Italy, where he signed off with a singles success against Wyndham Clark, the US Open champion at the time.

MacIntyre then joined forces with Viktor Hovland to record an eye-catching second-day foursomes win over Scottie Scheffler and Russell Henley in New York before halving his singles clash with Sam Burns.

Having qualified for those two encounters under his own steam, MacIntyre will be determined to do so again for Donald’s bid to create history by becoming the first captain from either to be a three-time winning Ryder Cup captain.

The Scot’s bid has already been boosted by him securing his spot in next year’s Signature Events on the PGA Tour, meaning he can pick up big points in both those tournaments and the majors.

“Yeah, obviously for a player that's playing over there, to understand their schedule is nice,” observed Donald, speaking on the eve of the qualification campaign starting in the Husqvarna British Masters at The Belfry.

“You know, someone who didn’t make the top 50 (on the FedEx Cup points list), they’ll have a few more decisions to make and it will be a little bit more challenging.”

MacIntyre is teeing up in 30-man field in this week’s $40 million Tour Championship, the PGA Tour’s season-ending event, in Atlanta, having secured his spot at the death with a best-of-the-day 65 in final round of the BMW Championship in St Louis on Sunday.

“Nice little improvement from Memphis,” observed Donald, smiling, of the 30-year-old having withdrawn from the previous week’s FedEx St Jude Championship, the opening Play-Off event, after slumping to a 12-over-par 82.

“I know he's had a little bit of a struggle with his knee. but I saw improvement, and to obviously play so well on Sunday just kind of shows the character of Bob, his grit.

“When he sees something ahead of him that he can get to, he seems very motivated. He's a very accomplished player and he's proven that. I hope some of of his experience in Ryder Cups has helped him on the road the last few years.”