Bob MacIntyre's Struggles and Potential at the US Open

"I'm a guy that believes. Having a chance to win a major is what I dreamed of as a kid."

Those were the upbeat words of Bob MacIntyre in the minutes after he had the US Open ripped out of his hands at Oakmont last June.

His magnanimous reaction moments earlier in the scorer's room - captured on video and seen by the golf world - to JJ Spaun's 64-foot putt that denied him his first major added to the feel-good factor around the Scot 12 months ago.

He followed that runners-up spot with another top 10 in the year's final major, The Open, then helped Europe retain the Ryder Cup at raucous Brookline.

MacIntyre finished his dreamy 2025 as the world number seven and began 2026 being tipped to make a major breakthrough.

So far though, it has been a year of more lows than highs.

Not quite an annus horribilis, because a tie for fourth in The Players is a significant achievement for any player, but that March week at Sawgrass has been one of his few highlights.

A share of second in the Valero Texas Open in his next event was another, and suggested MacIntyre was in prime form before the Masters the following week.

He unravelled at Augusta though, shooting 80 and 71 to miss the cut and was reportedly reprimanded by the club for his behaviour, which included directing a middle-finger towards the 15th green after making a quadruple bogey.

The man from Oban also missed the cut in the US PGA in May and had finished no higher than 42nd since the Masters going into last week's Canadian Open.

It is an event the 29-year-old has much fondness for - having won it in 2024 with his father Dougie on the bag - and his 15th place following four rounds in the 60s hinted at a timely return to form with 2026's third major this week.

Shinnecock Hills is this year's US Open host and is a notoriously brutal examination, not least on greens so slick and challenging they caused a befuddled Phil Mickelson to hit a moving ball during the 2018 staging.

Brooks Koepka won that week on a score of one over. Mickelson and champion Retief Goosen were the only men under par when Shinnecock was the venue in 2004.

The storied course on Long Island on the outskirts of New York is no place for a player trying to find form, then, but one man who knows his game and his character well fully expects the real MacIntyre to stand up very soon.

"I don't think he's got a golf issue going on at the moment, I think he's got life going on. As Jack Nicklaus used to say, life gets in the way and you've got to deal with it," said former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley on a US Open media conference call.

"He's just had a baby a few months ago, just before the Masters... it's not derailed him, but it's an adjustment in your life.

"He'll settle down, he'll figure that out, and he'll come back again. His form has not been what we would have expected the last two or three months, and I think that's the reason why."

McGinley - speaking alongside colleagues Rich Lerner and Brandel Chamblee, with whom he will cover the US Open for the Golf Channel - believes Shinnecock's fast-running fairways and breezy test will suit MacIntyre.

"He's a dogged competitor. He's got a huge heart. There was a reason he was played down the order on the last day of the singles. We have a lot of belief in him," added McGinley, an advisor to captain Luke Donald on both MacIntyre's Ryder Cup appearances.

"He loves the fight. I'm a huge admirer of his game. He's a wonderful putter, he's won on links courses and growing up in Scotland, he's very familiar with the kind of conditions at Shinnecock Hills."

The set-up at Shinnecock could favour MacIntyre, who is an indifferent 46th in driving accuracy on the PGA Tour this season.

World number one Scottie Scheffler made a scouting trip to Long Island a few weeks ago and was surprised at the relative width, by US Open standards, of the fairways.

The rough beyond the cut grass is ominous, but the Open champion believes the real test in this US Open will be on the slippery greens.

It fits the profile of former champions at Shinnecock, with Corey Pavin - a short hitter who dazzled with a wedge and a putter in his hands - winning there in 1995 and Goosen putting with astonishing touch and nerve to win in 2004.

MacIntyre will be buoyed by his Canadian Open performance but will he will need all of his noted short-game prowess and a cool head to prosper this week and go one better than the glorious near-miss of 12 months ago.