Scotland's golfing summer has long since faded, but one of the sport's most distinctive weeks has arrived to send the season off in style. The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship returned to the east coast of Fife this week, rotating across the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, with defending champion Robert MacIntyre attempting something no Scot has managed in over two decades: winning the title in consecutive years.
The tournament, which tees off its 25th edition since its founding in 2001, remains one of the most unusual fixtures on the DP World Tour calendar. A field of 168 professionals is paired with amateur partners, including business figures, celebrities and sporting stars, for a team competition that runs alongside the individual professional event. After three rounds the field is cut to the leading 60 professionals and ties, along with the top 20 teams, before the final round is played in full on the Old Course.
MacIntyre arrived at St Andrews as the player every home supporter wanted to see go deep. Twelve months ago the man from Oban produced a stunning final round of 66 to win by four shots, a victory that arrived just a week after he had played a leading role in Europe's Ryder Cup triumph at Bethpage Black. That win made him only the fourth Scot to lift the trophy, following Paul Lawrie in the inaugural 2001 edition, Stephen Gallacher in 2004 and Colin Montgomerie in 2005, and it was his second Scottish title of 2025 after also winning the Genesis Scottish Open.
A tournament steeped in history
Across 24 stagings, with the 2020 edition cancelled because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the championship has produced 21 different winners. England's Tyrrell Hatton remains the only man to win it three times, and the only player to defend the title successfully, doing so in 2016 and 2017. Padraig Harrington has two victories to his name. The roll of honour underlines just how difficult it is to win more than once, given the shifting demands of three very different links courses and the unpredictable Scottish autumn weather that so often plays a part.
That unpredictability was once again a feature this week. Wind swept in off the North Sea for several groups, turning scoring difficult in exposed stretches at Kingsbarns and Carnoustie, while calmer spells allowed low numbers at St Andrews. It is that variety, organisers argue, which makes the event such a popular draw for both players and galleries, with free entry across all three courses for the first three days of the week and tickets required only for the final round on the Old Course.
Young South African sets the pace
After the opening exchanges it was South African amateur-turned-professional prospects and in-form Challenge Tour graduates who set the tone rather than the biggest names. Casey Jarvis moved to the top of the leaderboard following a fast start, while Englishman Matthew Jordan and South African MJ Daffue were among those chasing hardest in the early rounds. Major champion Brooks Koepka and Ryder Cup player Thomas Detry were both within shouting distance of the lead heading into the weekend, a reminder that the Dunhill Links regularly attracts star names looking to test themselves on Scottish turf before the European season winds down.
Scottish interest extended beyond MacIntyre. Michael Stewart, Scott Jamieson and several of the country's home professionals were handed the chance to play in front of their own galleries, with the amateur draw also including well-known faces from sport and entertainment, a tradition that dates back to the tournament's earliest years and one of the features that separates it from almost every other event on tour.
Format built for drama
The team element continues to give the week its own unique flavour. Each professional is partnered with an amateur who receives a stroke allowance based on two-thirds of their handicap, up to a maximum of 18 for men and 24 for women, with the better net score at each hole counted towards the team total. It means spectators walking the fairways at Kingsbarns or Carnoustie can watch a club golfer holing a crucial putt just as easily as they can watch a world-ranked professional doing the same, and it has produced genuine upsets in the team event over the years.
For MacIntyre, however, the individual prize remains the focus. A win would move him level with Harrington on two Dunhill Links titles and make him the first player to retain the trophy since Hatton's double in the middle of the last decade. Given his Ryder Cup pedigree and his evident comfort on home soil, few would bet against him finding a way to contend again as the tournament reaches its climax on the Old Course.
What next
The final round is due to be completed entirely at St Andrews, with the leading professionals and the surviving amateur teams converging on the most famous finishing hole in golf. Beyond this week, attention in the men's game will quickly turn towards the end-of-season Race to Dubai battle, while in Scotland the result at St Andrews will be pored over as another marker of the strength in depth now coming through in home golf, with MacIntyre's achievements continuing to inspire a new generation of Scottish players hoping to follow him onto tour.
