Robert MacIntyre finds form at US PGA as cake-cooking mum joins him to provide home comforts

The restorative powers of a break in Oban are well trailed and on Thursday the town’s most famous sporting son gave the jewel of Argyll and Bute yet more positive publicity with a rousing start to the season’s second major.

Robert MacIntyre shot a five-under 66 to figure high on the US PGA leaderboard and then expressed his belief that, on the back of his tie for 13th in Myrtle Beach on Sunday, this uplift in form was down to a recent return to Scotland.

Having suffered from loneliness since joining the PGA Tour in January, Macintyre, 27, has been refreshed.

“To be honest, I think it [the turnaround] was spending some time back at home,” he said. “It’s no secret I’ve been living in America. It’s been tough. It’s not like Oban. When I go back home, it’s a lot of friends and family you get to spend time with, my nieces, everyone that’s close to me and really cares for me.

“When I’m in America, it’s just me, my girlfriend, and we’re trying to live as good a life as we can, but it’s difficult when we’re both so close to family and friends. A lot of people never leave Oban. They go on holidays and stuff, but they’re born there, they work there, they ultimately die there. My whole family and friends are there. They’re probably always going to be there.

“But yeah, I got three weeks at home there and hardly touched the golf clubs, done some stupid stuff and just enjoyed myself.”

A happy MacIntyre is clearly a dangerous MacIntyre. “I’m in a good mind frame coming off of the last few events,” he said. “Obviously being at home was a massive help. I came back out here to play in a team event [the Zurich Classic] with Thomas Detry [in which they finished 10th] and life was great. This week I’ve got my mum out. She’s cooking for my whole team and I’m having too many cakes and desserts. We’re having a good time.”

MacIntyre, who earned his US card via the DP World Tour last year, is not the first to find it difficult to acclimatise. It is wildly contrasting to the collegiate atmosphere on the European circuit.

“I didn’t know what to expect,” MacIntyre said. “I knew a lot of guys, but it’s just a different environment on the PGA Tour. It’s very much business. There’s not as much chatting that goes on. In Europe, we travel the world. We go to Asia, the Middle East, all over the place and when you’re in these countries and you don’t speak the local language, you kind of have to stick together.

“There’s just a group of guys that I kind of hang about with in Europe that make life on the road a lot easier.”

MacIntyre, who made his Ryder Cup debut in October, is determined to crack America, but he is not certain that he will base himself permanently in Orlando, where he is a member of Isleworth. “I’m just trying to work out life,” he said, after a round featuring five birdies and no bogeys.

“It’s more where I want to live, and whether that’s in Scotland, in America, we’re still trying to work that out. I mean, who knows if I’d come in and played great at the start of the year, then you know what? Probably living in Orlando is going to be great. But I didnt.

“Look Isleworth is a great track with great people, but it’s not home. People closest to me speak to me as Bob the human rather than Bob the golfer. I think that’s when I’m at my happiest, when I’m not talking about golf, golf, golf. Life is actually more important than what I’m doing out here.”