MacIntyre chasing a moment of history

The battle for the 2025 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship title becomes an exciting sprint for the line tomorrow with Scotland’s Bob MacIntyre starting out in front on the leaderboard and aiming for more golfing fireworks in the third – and final – round.

Today’s suspension of play due to high winds caused by Storm Amy led to the tournament becoming a 54-hole contest.

All of Scotland will be hoping MacIntyre, playing the Old Course, can win on home soil to become the first Scottish champion since Colin Montgomerie in 2005. It would cap a remarkable period for the 29-year-old from Oban, just a week after starring in Europe’s Ryder Cup victory last Sunday.

MacIntyre is on 12-under-par alongside South Africa’s Richard Sterne after shooting back-to-back 66s – an ultra-solid start at Carnoustie on Thursday followed by a brilliant tour de force to defy worsening wind and rain at Kingsbarns 24 hours later.

The Scot thrilled home golf fans with seven birdies and just one bogey at weather-battered Kingsbarns, and he and Sterne start out tomorrow one stroke ahead of Louis Oosthuizen, who is on 11-under-par.

South Africa’s Oosthuizen, who won the 2010 Open Championship at St Andrews, is not the only high-class player in the chasing pack, with no fewer than 32 players within five strokes of the two leaders.

Scotland’s Scott Jamieson is two shots back on ten-under-par, while MacIntyre’s fellow Ryder Cup heroes – the English trio of Matt Fitzpatrick, Tommy Fleetwood and Tyrrell Hatton – are all still in contention. So, too, is two-time former Masters champion Bubba Watson in a group on seven-under-par that includes both Fleetwood and Hatton, with Fitzpatrick a shot better off on eight-under-par.

The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is a celebration of Links golf, played over the Old Course St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, three of the greatest Links courses in the world.

With a prize fund of US$5 million, the Alfred Dunhill Links incorporates two separate competitions - an Individual Professional tournament for the world's leading golfers and the Team Championship in which the professionals are paired with amateur golfers which creates a unique atmosphere.

Among the celebrity amateurs playing are Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Bill Murray, Matthew Goode, Ronan Keating, Tom Chaplin, Dave Farrell, Mike Rutherford, Huey Lewis, Piers Morgan, Peter Jones, Andy Murray, Wayne Gretzky, Kelly Slater, Steve Redgrave, A.P. McCoy, Kevin Pietersen, Allan Lamb, Mark Nicholas, Michael Vaughan, Schalk Burger Jnr, Morné du Plessis and Rob Louw.

The Team Championship looks set for a thrilling finale with four pairs tied going into tomorrow's final day: Jack Senior & Dery Desmond, Wenyi Ding & David MacFarlane, Harrison Crowe & Cian Foley and Alejandro Del Rey & Matthew Goode.

This is the 40th year that Alfred Dunhill has supported golf at St Andrews – first in the Alfred Dunhill Cup from 1985, then in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship from 2001. During that time, many millions have been raised for charity.

In June 2011 the Alfred Dunhill Links Foundation was established as the official Foundation of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. The Foundation is committed to developing young amateur golfers in Scotland and South Africa and also supports the University of St Andrews and the St Andrews Pilgrim Foundation, which refurbishes and preserves historical monuments in the town.