2025 Alfred Dunhill Links: When the Year Ends in 5. Great Scot MacIntyre wins the Dunhill.

St Andrews' John Paterson ends week with spectacular 31 on back nine at Kingsbarns

Scotland win the Alfred Dunhill Cup in 1995.

Monty wins the Alfred Dunhill Links in 2005.

Robert MacIntyre wins the Alfred Dunhill Links in 2025.

"It's a special, special win" says Bob.

It is THE trophy shot every golfer wants. Sat on the Swilcan Bridge.

"To be on this trophy with some of the other names is amazing and special".

A victory at this place overcomes everything else. The frustration, inconvenience of the absolute nonsense that was Saturday, and the challenge of playing in utterly brutal conditions on Friday all faded into the distant past after Robert MacIntyre lifted the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship trophy on Sunday. This event may not carry a $20million purse, or be one of the PGA TOUR's much vaunted 'Signature events', it isn't even one of the DP World Tour's flagship Rolex Series events, but the players know - the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is one of the greatest events in world golf, and winning it puts you in elite company.

With respect to the folks at Renaissance Club, that course isn't in the same class as Carnoustie, Kingsbarns or the Old Course, and Bob knows that too. “Look, to win anywhere in the world is special, but for a Scotsman, I won The Scottish Open. To win the Dunhill at the Home of Golf, there's no other place you want to win golf tournaments, and the only one that potentially would top this would be an Open Championship at St Andrews.

“But no, this is a special, special win, and for me as a Scotsman, it just elevates that.”

20 years after Colin Montgomerie claimed the most recent Alfred Dunhill Links Championship by a Scot, and 30 years after Monty, Sam Torrance and Andrew Coltart lifted the Alfred Dunhill Cup for Scotland, MacIntyre coasted to victory on what could have been a complicated day.

MacIntyre immediately showed that he had the confidence of being the best golfer in the field, even if it was technically Tommy Fleetwood. He started with birdies at the first, fourth and fifth to open up a lead he would never come close to relinquishing to a chasing pack spread over three courses.

A fourth birdie on the front nine would be added at the 7th hole, and it already looked like Bob's title, with none of the overnight leaders making any impression. MacIntyre failed to birdie the short par-four ninth hole, but rolled in a 16 foot birdie putt at the 10th to move to 17-under-par, leading by six shots with 8 holes to play. It would now take an almost unprecedented stumble for the Ryder Cup winning star to lose the title.

Instead of stumbling, Bob put the pedal down and drove full speed ahead to one of the biggest titles of his career so far. He added birdies at the 13th and 16th to reach 19-under-par, and that was game over. He could even afford a bogey on the Road Hole and a sloppy par on the 18th. It was job done. He had a wait of about an hour to see if anyone could catch him, and overnight co-leader Richard Sterne stumbled at Carnoustie, allowing defending Champion and Alfred Dunhill Links king, Tyrrell Hatton to secure his third runner-up spot in addition to three wins.

"I thought I managed it well, stayed out of the pot bunkers" said MacIntyre. "But then once you're in position, it's about controlling the golf ball to then land softly around the pins when you get a chance, and I thought I did a great job of that.

"I had a laugh when we were driving the buggy back down to the clubhouse. I've done everything against the book this week, from preparation, I pitched up Wednesday afternoon. I know the golf courses. Played 12 holes on Wednesday. The diet has not been good this week; I can confirm that. I've eaten plenty of takeaways, fish and chips, plenty of others.

"It's brilliant. I don't know how we're going to celebrate after the celebration we had last Sunday."

Australian Harrison Crowe and his partner Cian Foley won the Team Championship, shooting 63 at Carnoustie to give them a total of 33-under-par, and a one shot victory.

St Andrews' John Paterson completed his DP World Tour debut with a stunning final nine holes of 31 at Kingsbarns to finish the week at +1.

John initially began his third round at Kingsbarns on Saturday, and before play was halted he birdied the par four 6th, and then hit a good drive up the 7th. So the 25-year-old Scot was frustrated, like many, that the opening holes of the third round had been declared null and void, with the re-start to come on Sunday.

He returned to the Kyle Phillips-designed course on Sunday morning, this time teeing off the first hole, and he struggled on the front nine, going out in 38, with 3 bogeys and a 1 birdie.

However, over his final 10 holes he lit it up with a fine stretch of golf, with birdie at the par-four 11th hole, a spectacular eagle at the par-five 12th, and a birdie at the difficult par-four 14th, along with 6 pars.

John was happy with how he finished, but overall he was disappointed with how he played throughout the week. "shame about the golf but happy to finish the way I did" he said to me in a post-round message thanking me for the coverage of him during the championship.

1-over-par for three rounds is never going to make the cut on a low-scoring week like this, and John knows that, but there can be no doubt about his talent and ability, and at times this week he showed that on the biggest stage he has ever played on. John could not have asked for worse conditions to make his DP World Tour debut in, with the lashing rain and wind on Friday at Carnoustie, and the suspension and delays on Saturday.

During our interview and photoshoot last Sunday John revealed that much of his pre-tournament preparation would be done at Carnoustie, because of his vast tournament experience around the Old Course, and because he often caddies at Kingsbarns to help fund his play on the Tartan Pro Tour. It would seem that this preparation paid off, as he played beautifully on a far from beautiful day on the Angus coast.

Starting on the 10th John birdied the 12th and 14th to move to 1-over-par for the championship.

Despite pushing his drive well to the right, and in the rough on the tough 15th, he produced a stunning approach to the back edge of the green, some 7 feet from the hole. The putt was missed, but Paterson looked in control and at the next he delivered a spectacular moment.

John played a stunning 5 iron to the back edge of the green, taking on a dangerous pin and in increasingly challenging conditions with the wind howling over his right shoulder. This felt like a massive moment, if he holed here he could potentially go and have a real go at posting a score to get himself back in contention for a spot on Sunday. He holed a beautiful putt and calmly moved to the next tee, the dangerous 17th. I met up with John's father, Steven, and mum, Fiona, as well as the family dog, Buff, who was named after the Colorado Buffaloes, the golf team he played for at the University of Colorado. They were following along in increasingly wretched conditions as the rain fell from the sky and the wind picked up pace.

A long iron down the right side of the hole set him up with an ideal angle to find the narrow approach to the green with his second shot, with the course receptive Paterson flew his shot onto the green and beyond the pin, leaving himself some 20 feet for birdie. The putt narrowly missed, and he went to the 18th, his 9th hole of the day, at level par for the championship. At this point the rain began getting much heavier, and coupled with the wind, the conditions really were horrendous.

In spite of this, John hit a fantastic drive up the right centre of the fairway, which could have opened up the opportunity of making birdie on one of the great holes in golf. However, he marginally overdrew his second shot and the ball ended up inches from the out of bounds fence next to the green, leaving him with an almost impossible chip, and despite his best efforts he failed to save the par.

As they made the turn to begin their second nine holes, the wind strengthened still further, making the first hole a fearsome test. Both John and his fellow professional in the group, Lucas Carrera, hit their drives well to the right, and they were so far right they could have turned round and played to the 16th green. Carrera unfortunately found a bunker, but John found a great lie and managed to muscle an approach through the wind to the opening at the front of the green. He played a beautiful chip and run to a foot, and saved par.

Bogeys on the 2nd and 5th holes saw him fall back to +3, but he bounced back with birdie at Hogan's Alley, the 6th. Sadly consecutive bogeys on the par-four 7th and par-three 8th holes saw John drop to 4-over for the championship, and his hopes of making the cut for Sunday are now looking slim. Throughout this round John showed resilience and patience, but also no little skill, and the tee shot at 16 will be one to remember for quite some time.

He opened his maiden Alfred Dunhill Links Championship with a frustrating round of 75 to sit in a tie for 163rd place, but it felt like this was the worst score the 25-year-old could possibly shoot.

Teeing off on the 10th hole Paterson hit a fantastic drive into the throat of the approach to the green, and two-putted through the valley to make an opening birdie. It was the perfect start to his week, a nerve-settling 3. That's if he had any nerves, John looked like he had the confidence of having played the Old Course many times, in all conditions.

He followed this up with a tremendous tee shot on the par-three 11th hole to give himself 10 feet down the hill for birdie, the second birdie chance in two holes on a day when he would have looks at birdie on 10, 11, 12, 13, 18, 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. The putt narrowly slid by, but it was a solid start to his round. He pulled his drive on the 12th into deep trouble, but got lucky and found a thin sliver of rough surrounded by the gorse, from there he played a quite sublime recovery, masterfully controlling the ball from such a difficult position. At this point both his dad, Steven, and I have to admit I was getting a little bit excited at the prospect of him making a second birdie in the first three holes. But unfortunately his putter was stone cold and missed the birdie chance again.

On the tricky 13th hole he drove his ball down into the neck of the fairway and set up another birdie opportunity, but he could not convert.

From being in with a realistic chance of shooting 4-under-par through the first four holes, he was set to stumble.

On 14 he found a bunker with his second shot, and took 4 more to get down, making a bogey on a hole which is well within his capabilities of making birdie.

At the 15th he pulled his approach to the left edge of the green and could not get up and down, and on the 16th he drove into the Deacon Sime bunker, costing him a third consecutive bogey.

By time we reached the 17th tee the rain had arrived and the conditions were as grim as the last three holes, again he drove down the left and his approach came up short and he couldn't rescue the par from a difficult position. On the 18th hole he hit a drive to within 61 yards of the pin, but his approached lacked aggression in receptive conditions, and he left himself an 11 foot putt for birdie, which he missed. The frustration was palpable, particularly given the start he had made, and despite making a birdie on the 2nd hole, he couldn't convert any of the other four birdie chances he had, and made a sloppy bogey on the 3rd, chunking his second shot and coming up some 38 yards short of the pin.

The greatest compliment I can give John is he did not seem out of place, he looked every inch a DP World Tour golfer. You don't just shoot 31 on the back nine holes at Kingsbarns without having the game to be an elite player, especially given the breezy conditions we had on Sunday. You don't birdie the 16th at Carnoustie in the fashion he did, with the wind getting up, without having the talent and ability to compete at the highest level.

Across the three rounds John made 10 birdies, 1 eagle and 13 bogeys. Perhaps the most impressive aspect of his performance was that he kept the double-bogey off his card. That could easily have come at the Road Hole in the first round from the position he left himself in with his second shot, and it could have come at any time over the last 12 holes at Carnoustie on Friday. This was a solid debut, in extreme conditions, and I have absolutely no doubt we will see John as a regular on the DP World Tour in the years to come.

Following the conclusion of his round I sent him a quick message of encouragement, and he responded thanking me for the coverage of his week. Once play concluded on Sunday and the Madras College bagpipes started to be played I must confess I was as emotional as I have been at a golf tournament since the 2019 Solheim Cup. To have a golfer who I have known for nearly a decade, and who I have covered since he was a teenager, show that level of gratitude for my work means the world to me. It makes everything I have ever done with this platform worthwhile. No other platform or outlet covers golf in this area like the one I have built and developed. In almost every metric it is the biggest golf tournament I have ever done.

Executive Tournament Director Peter German also acknowledged my feature on 40 years of dunhill golf in St Andrews, saying "Thank you Matt – appreciate your support."

To have a Scot win the 40th anniversary of dunhill golf in St Andrews is magical, and to see the sun finally shine on a Sunday, just like it did all those years ago in 2013, when I first covered this magnificent event, it is truly awesome. The DP World Tour heads to Madrid this week for the Open de Espana, and John Paterson headed to Duddingston Golf Club near Edinburgh, for the Duddingston Classic presented by Barr Demolition on the Tartan Pro Tour, where he opened with a round of 72 (+1) today to sit 9 off the lead.

Whatever happens in the future, John Paterson will never forget this week, neither will Robert MacIntyre, and neither will I.

SHANK, written by Matt Hooper