European Ryder Cup captain Padraig Harrington handed top Scot Robert MacIntyre a glowing report card insisting he’s good enough to tee-up in this year’s Ryder Cup.
Harrington got a first close-up look at MacIntyre during the opening two rounds of last week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.
Also, partnering the Irishman was Dundee-based Victor Perez with the Frenchman currently in the European Team at fifth overall on the points standing and MacIntyre outside the automatic qualifying top-eight at 13th.
Harrington said: “Robert’s definitely a good enough player to make The Ryder Cup Team.
European Ryder Cup captain, Padraig Harrington playing in the opening two rounds of the Abu Dhabi Championship alongside Scot Robert MacIntyre.
“He’s one of the future players of the European Tour. It could be his time in the next eight, nine months, there’s no doubt about it.
“From a statistical point of view and from a personality point of view, he’s kind of a hearty fella, which you want. He’s a tough customer. He’s a fighter. He gets it done which is very important when it comes to match play, and we’ve already looked at the stats and he’s very, very balanced, so actually would work very well in different formats, foursomes, fourballs.
“Robert’s actually a rookie so he needs to play himself really tight to the team obviously. You won’t be picking a rookie 16th or 17th or whatever, but if he’s there or thereabouts, he’s a player you would be very happy to have on the team based on the way he plays golf and also on his personality.
“What I like, he’s a fighter. You put him out anywhere in a match, and talking to him, he likes that. He has that little bit of, I won’t say he has a chip on his shoulder, but he certainly fights like he has a little bit of a point to prove.”
And MacIntyre is under the Whistling Straits spotlight at this week’s Omega Dubai Desert Classic with Harrington having organised the Tour to have European vice-captain Robert Karlsson in the grouping of Thomas Pieters and MacIntyre.
