Euan’s scenic route back to competing
Eu an Mc In t o s h is re n e w i n g acquaintances after 30 years – and he couldn’t be happier.
The 52-year-old from Edinburgh has taken up his spot on the Legends Tour, and he is currently competing in the season opener in Austria this weekend.
But while the over-50s circuit is a seamless transition from the main Tour for many, Mcintosh has taken a more scenic route.
He never made it on to the European Tour despite years of trying, and went into club teaching
before moving abroad and giving up his professional status.
Euan rekindled the fire again playing for the love of the game, and in 2018, he won the Scottish Amateur as he geared up for a crack at seniors’ golf.
He came through Q- School for the Legends Tour in January 2020, but saw his first season completely wiped out through Covid, and his second one curtailed.
Now with a fuller schedule, the Edinburgh- based golfer can’t wait to get cracking.
“It feels like I’ve been waiting half a lifetime for this,” he told The Sunday Post from Austria.
“Last year was a bit stop- start, and I’m the sort of person who would play every week if I could.
But this season looks good. I love the challenge of it because golf is the ultimate test of mental and physical
strength. When you lose that, it’s time to stop.
“I competed against a lot of the guys out here years ago. I was speaking to Joakim Haeggman, and we were talking about the games we had against each other 30 years ago.
“He was a guy I knew really well when I was 18, 19, 20. But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to beat him and the rest.
“My big aim is to win one of these Legends Tour events.”
A talented amateur in his youth, Mcintosh had turned pro in the hope that he would move through the ranks.
But the big break never came and after years of toil, Mcintosh stepped away from the game.
“Turning pro back then, it was very expensive, and unless you were lucky enough to have a sponsor, everything was selffunded,” he said.
“I went to the Challenge Tour and Q- School, but didn’t make it on to the main tour and eventually, at 32, I quit.
“I couldn’t see the wood for the trees, and I was constantly worrying about money.
“So I did some teaching in Germany, and worked in event management for a long time.
“Eventually I joined a club again and got a handicap. I was shooting high 80s at first, but it was a competition between me and golf as I had no aspirations.
“But I got a job abroad and playing a course over there, I shot 63 or 64. It felt like there was something there, so why didn’t I go for the seniors’ tour?”
However, instead of turning pro again immediately, Mcintosh decided to compete on the Scottish amateur circuit against the next generation of up- and- coming players.
And in 2018, it all came good when he won the Scottish Amateur at Blairgowrie.
“Winning that was awesome,” he admitted. “It was played around a course I love, and it isn’t a bomber’s course, so there was more strategy in play.
“To come out on top in a field with star young players, like Euan Walker and Sandy Scott, meant a lot.
“I had reached the Scottish Boys final years before and lost 6& 5. That really affected me, so I was determined not to let it happen again.
“Sometimes when you reach a final, you think the job’s done. So I kept my focus and beat Jamie Stewart, one of the best young golfers in Scotland at the time.
“But I was standing at the prizegiving and, while obviously thrilled to win, I looked at Jamie.
“I just hoped that he would not be as affected as losing a national final as I’d been all those years before.”