Scottish golfers enjoying best DP World Tour season since 2001

In landing his impressive four-shot success in an event held at Carnoustie, Kingsbarns and St Andrews, the 29-year-old Oban man became the fourth different player flying the Saltire to taste victory on the international circuit this season.

Calum Hill started the ball rolling when he landed the Joburg Open in March before Connor Syme claimed his maiden win in the KLM Open in June then Grant Forrest triumphed in the Nexo Championship in August.

Not since 2001 have so many Scottish players dominated DP World Tour leaderboards, making it an even better season than 2022, when four titles fell to three players as Ewen Ferguson won twice and MacIntyre and Richie Ramsay both landed a victory apiece.

Twenty-four years ago, the final tally was five Scottish successes as Colin Montgomerie won both the Murphy’s Irish Open and Volvo Scandinavian Masters while Andrew Oldcorn landed the Volvo PGA Championship, Andrew Coltart was crowned as the Great North Open champion and Paul Lawrie won the inaugural Dunhill Links Championship.

Only three times since then have we seen more than two tartan triumphs in the same season. In 2004, a hat-trick of titles were secured by Montgomerie (Singapore Masters), Scott Drummond (Volvo PGA Championship) and Stephen Gallacher (Dunhill Links). And, in 2012, Paul Lawrie won both the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and Johnnie Walker Championship at Gleneagles and Richie Ramsay was the Omega European Masters victor. Then we had those four wins three years ago.

16 tartan triumphs on DP World Tour since 2019

Between 2013 and 2018, there were just seven Scottish victories in total on the circuit, but, on the back of players like MacIntyre, Forrest, Ferguson, Syme, Hill and David Law all being ready to hit the ground running on the main tour after graduating from what is now called the HotelPlanner Tour, we’ve now had 16 since the start of the 2019 season.

Law landed an early rookie breakthrough that year in the ISPS Handa Vic Open before Gallacher, with his son Jack on the bag, claimed his fourth career victory in the Hero Indian Open.

The following year, Marc Warren’s Austrian Open win came in the first event to be held on the circuit following the Covid pandemic shutdown while MacIntyre then recorded his maiden victory in the Aphrodite Hills Cyprus Showdown.

Forrest and Hill then landed 2021 breakthroughs in the Hero Open and Cazoo Classic respectively before Ferguson’s brace the following year in the Commercial Bank Qatar Masters and ISPS Handa World Invitation presented by AVIV Clinics coincided with Richie Ramsay winning the Cazoo Classic and MacIntyre giving himself a springboard to become a Ryder Cup player as he triumphed in the DS Automobiles Italian Open.

After a winless 2023 campaign, Ferguson landed his third tour triumph in the BMW International Open before, a week later, MacIntyre became the first home player since Montgomerie in 1999 to win the Genesis Scottish Open.

Though not really recognised at the time, Hill’s victory in South Africa earlier marked a milestone as it was the 150th recorded by a Scottish player on the DP World Tour, with that figure now up to 153 after MacIntyre’s latest eye-catching effort.

Helped by their title triumphs, MacIntyre, who sits sixth in the Race to Dubai Rankings, Hill (39th), Syme (41st) and Forrest (42nd) are all currently on course to qualify for the season-ending DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next month, as is Ferguson in 40th spot.