He’s done it! Robert MacIntyre wins ‘Rookie of the Year’!

It’s official – Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre is the 2019 European Tour ‘Rookie of the Year’.

The 23-year-old from Oban closed with a three-under 69 in the final event of the season, the DP World Tour Championship. 

That helped to finish tied for 14th, comfortably ahead of his nearest challenger for the debutant spoils, Kurt Kitayama.

MacIntyre also won the ‘Graduate of the Year’ award after stepping up from the Challenge Tour last year.

“I’m absolutely delighted,” he said afterwards. “Halfway through the season when it became on the radar that we could win both awards, it’s something that we set out to do. Today we’ve finally achieved it and now I’m absolutely over the moon for it.

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“I’ve enjoyed the battle. The last few weeks have been hard because I’ve been looking over my shoulder until last week when I got overtaken.

“But I could only control what I can control and that was putting some good golf shots on display and I finally managed to put in two good rounds this week to seal it off.

“Family’s everything to us. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them giving up so much time. My dad works two jobs, my mum previously worked three, four jobs. Now she’s starting to cool it down a wee bit but that’s nice.

“It’s been down to them and they have given me the chance. Now I just thank them so much.”

The Glencruitten man finished 11th on the Race To Dubai, after a stunning debut season in which he has posted seven top-10s – three of which were runner-up finishes. 

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He also finished in a tie for sixth on his major championship debut in the Open at Royal Portrush. In doing so, he became the first player from Scotland to finish inside the top-10 on his Open debut since Andrew Kirkaldy in 1879.

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MacIntyre becomes the first Scot to win the ‘Rookie of the Year’ title since Marc Warren in 2006 and the tenth in total, following in the footsteps of the likes of Sam Torrance (1972), Sandy Lyle (1978) and Colin Montgomerie (1988).

Other famous names to have won the ‘Rookie of the Year’ honour include Jose Maria Olazabal (1986), Sergio Garcia (1999), Martin Kaymer (2007) and current world No.1 Brooks Koepka (2014).