Differing Approaches at the Dunhill Links Championship

To a certain kind of golf fan, Dustin Johnson has always been the epitome of cool.

The way he walked, the way he talked, the way he mashed the ball with effortless power and a syrupy tempo — he was our generation’s Freddie Couples. He cared, but only so much. He won a bunch of tournaments, but probably not as many as he could or should have. It was almost cooler that Johnson didn’t seem to care, that he wasn’t bothered by his major disappointments, but the wins that slipped away. He was not, after all, interested in legacy or history. He was a professional golfer because he was good at it, and that was about the extent of his motivation. When he wasn’t golfing, he was going to ride jet skis and date beautiful women and party until the sun came up.

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Robert MacIntyre is 12 years younger than Johnson, and it would be fair to describe him as the polar opposite of cool. He looks, at age 29, about as athletic as your accountant. He wears clothes that seem like they were purchased from the discount rack of Golf Galaxy. His swing is not elegant or graceful, and nothing he does seems effortless. He is a try-hard, someone who has to squeeze every last ounce out of his talent to be successful, and it’s easy to poke fun at a try-hard. At the Ryder Cup at Bethpage last week, MacIntyre was heckled mercilessly by American fans, almost certainly by the same kind of fan who would pick Johnson to be their ideal golfing avatar.

The two men have little in common. But both competed in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship this past weekend, and I found myself rooting for each of them for different reasons.

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Johnson, who joined LIV Golf in 2022, turned plenty of heads early in the week by firing a 64 in the first round. It was a reminder of how easy the game can sometimes look for him, and it offered a sliver of hope that there might be some relevance left in his career. Johnson missed the cut in three of the four majors in 2025 and finished 14th in LIV’s season-long standings, leading to plenty of speculation that he was drifting toward semi-retirement. But when Johnson talked to reporters, he mentioned that he’d watched the Ryder Cup from his couch, and while he didn’t agree that he was worthy of a selection, he still hoped to be part of future Ryder Cups. He looked refocused and eager to grind again.

“I’d love to,” Johnson said when asked about the Ryder Cup. “I wanted to be there (at Bethpage). I just need to play a little better. But I finally feel like I have my game coming back into form. I’ve got a lot more confidence in it and I am starting to swing it well again. I went through about a year where I just wasn’t swinging at it very well. But I feel I am now starting to hit a lot of nice shots and feel a lot more consistent.”

MacIntyre came into the Dunhill with very low expectations. He was still exhausted from last week’s Ryder Cup celebrations. He did very little pre and played only 12 holes of practice. In a sense, he approached the tournament with the kind of laissez-faire attitude Johnson often had during his prime. “The diet has not been good this week,” MacIntyre said. “I can confirm that. I’ve eaten plenty of takeaways, fish and chips, plenty of others.”

What followed, however, was brilliant golf. Even though the rain and the wind in Scotland were so severe that it forced the tournament to shorten the event to three rounds, MacIntyre shot 66 each time he teed it up. He even played his best when the weather was the worst, firing a 66 during his Friday round at Kingsbarns. Johnson, by contrast, could not sustain his first-round magic, and stumbled home with a 77 at Kingsbarns. He finished the tournament tied for 71st.

MacIntyre went on to win the tournament by four strokes over Tyrrell Hatton, a capper on what has been the best season of his career. The key to victory, he said, was not feeling anxious when he stood over the ball. “This is a special, special win, and for me as a Scotsman, it just elevates that,” MacIntyre said. “It’s no secret now. A major championship is what I need or what I want.”  

Johnson, twice a winner in majors, already has the kind of legacy MacIntyre wants. He is in the autumn of his career. But it would be satisfying to see each of them continue to borrow from the other’s strengths in 2026 — a bit more focus from Johnson, a bit more chill from MacIntyre.

Bob looked customarily goofy on Sunday at the Dunhill, wearing a lumpy white stocking cap, an ill-fitting shirt, and a neck gator at the Old Course. No professional golfer looks more like a tourist than he does, right until impact.

But he sure looked cool lifting the trophy.