The countdown to the 2025 Ryder Cup at Bethpage Black is finally nearing its end. 24 of the world’s best golfers are putting their seatbacks and tray tables up and preparing for landing. Some are tuning up by slumming it at Silverado and Wentworth this week, but Team Europe sophomore Robert MacIntyre has slightly more glamorous plans.
At a Team Europe dinner on Tuesday night, MacIntyre told The Scotsman’s Martin Dempster that after the BMW PGA Championship, he plans to play several matches against his caddie Mike Burrows, who is a fine stick himself, leading the pair’s head-to-head series 5.5 to 1.5. But it’s not the matches themselves that are most fascinating, but where they’ll be played.
“We are going to do some recce for the PGA Championship and the US Open next year at Aronimink and Shinnecock Hills,” McIntyre told Dempster. “We will also play one of the best courses on the planet at Pine Valley, which I have never seen before … Aye, Friday, Saturday and Sunday it is foot to the floor and graft hard. Monday will be a day off when we arrive at the Ryder Cup and then it is tournament week.”
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Aronimink, Shinnecock and Pine Valley all in the same week? Needless to say, Bobby Mac will be eating GOOD in the buildup to Bethpage. Aronimink Golf Club cracks Golf Digest’s list of America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses at No.100. Shinnecock Hills comes in No.4 while Pine Valley occupies the top spot. Oh, and we should propbably mention that Bethpage Black clocks in at No.38. That’s an ALL-TIME run. The average is golfer is lucky if they get to play a single one of those courses in their lifetime. MacIntyre will be playing all of them, back to back to back to back. Not too shabby.
We’ll see if MacIntyre’s champagne-and-caviar prep helps lift Team Europe to an upset victory later this month, but if not, we doubt he’ll be complaining.
