Golf during the COVID-19 pandemic meant isolation in hotel rooms, fear of testing positive, and avoiding people. even teammates. It was a time when the sport became what 2x PGA Tour winner Bob MacIntyre called “the most horrible thing in the world.”

“The world became a lonely place,” Bob MacIntyre said in a recent DP World Tour feature titled Inside Bob MacIntyre’s DP World Tour Story. The Scottish golfer opened up about how pandemic isolation nearly broke him mentally. “You’re trying not to test positive to then be trapped in a hotel room for two weeks. Too scared to go for dinner with people because if they test positive, you’re getting the domino effect.”

Even when he returned home to Scotland between tournaments, he stayed away from everyone. “Not wanting to test positive, so you’re hiding away from everyone,” he recalled.

Notably, MacIntyre wasn’t alone in struggling.

Paul Waring, the DP World Tour player, described the experience in stark terms. He said, “The world becomes grey where you just don’t care about anything, good or bad. I was feeling it, I was living it.” Waring admitted he found it hard to even get out of bed some days during the pandemic. “I just wanted to sit and watch crap on TV and do nothing. There was no reason to do anything else,” he said.

Another PGA Tour winner, Justin Thomas, speaking about the return to golf back in 2020, acknowledged the strangeness of it all: “2020 is beyond a bizarre year so far, and especially in the world of sports, it’s just going to be different.”

The Cyprus Showdown in November 2020 was a peculiar time. Bob MacIntyre won his first European Tour title there, beating Masahiro Kawamura by one stroke with a final-round score of 64. But that night, Cyprus was closing down because of COVID rules. Everyone fled as fast as they could. Unfortunately, MacIntyre missed his flight because he had to deal with the press.

Amid all this chaos, he couldn’t even celebrate it properly like he would have as a child, with cheers from the crowd and champagne. Instead, he had supper by himself and drank a few beers while talking to his family over FaceTime. The COVID impact wasn’t limited to his celebrations!

The mental toll showed up in his game. He couldn’t make putts from 8 to 18 feet, the middle range where confidence matters most. And that setback put a question mark over his entire career. He shared his thought process, “What am I doing playing golf? This is the most horrible thing in the world right now!”

But his family pulled him through. MacIntyre credits them, saying, “They’re the ones that have helped me get to where I am now.” The 29-year-old gradually got back into the swing of things and that foundation paid off in 2025, when he had the best year of his career.

Bob MacIntyre finished in the top-ten six times, including a second-place finish at the U.S. Open, where he came from seven strokes behind to take the lead in the clubhouse. He came in second at the BMW Championship after being four shots ahead. He was on his second Ryder Cup team, played in the Tour Championship, and won the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St. Andrews. When you add his PGA Tour and DP World Tour earnings, he made more than $10 million.

At the end of the year, MacIntyre was rated eighth in the world. Not bad for someone who did not want to play anymore and couldn’t find the drive to practice.

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Bob MacIntyre’s Ryder Cup moment

Team Europe’s 15-13 win at the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black brought Bob MacIntyre’s journey full circle. The golfer who had spent months during COVID avoiding teammates now thrived in golf’s ultimate team environment.

MacIntyre admitted he got goosebumps as Europe’s team gathered for their pre-tournament dinner. The atmosphere in New York was hostile. “You’ve got to expect it out here,” he said. “It’s what happens when the bar opens at 9.30 am, and we get round to there.”

The noise disrupted his swing during play. “It was literally in my golf swing, so I stopped because it was loud,” he recalled. “But, look, it’s part of the game.”

After securing his half point and Europe’s victory, MacIntyre grew emotional. “I mean, I’m part of history. I get emotional thinking about it. I’m a kid that had a dream that had the support of my family, had the support of my sponsors, had support of a club, a town, and just keep dreaming and just keep working hard, keep moving forward, and anything can happen.”

For someone who once sat alone in Cyprus wondering if golf was worth it, the moment carried extra weight. “To get a half point and to win the Ryder Cup on US soil, I have now only got one more thing to achieve in the game of golf and that’s win a major,” he said.