The doors of opportunity are swinging open for Robert MacIntyre.

When it was confirmed that the 22-year-old left-hander had secured a share of sixth place in The Open Championship on Sunday afternoon, the Scottish golf writers, who were clattering away at their laptops with the panting gusto of Little Richard thumping on the piano, got a visit from a PGA Tour official looking for his manager’s phone number.

“He’s now eligible for The Barracuda Championship and we need to ask him if he wants to play,” she said.

MacIntyre was set to break America. Or not as the case may be.

While the chance to compete on the biggest and richest circuit in the world was one of the spin-offs of that terrific Open performance, the logistics of getting from Oban to Nevada at such short notice would have been something of a flapping guddle and he possibly would’ve struggled to do himself justice.

“I can’t get there until late Tuesday and that just wouldn’t be the right preparation for it, so I decided against it,” reasoned MacIntyre yesterday.

“But I have three weeks off now so if another invitation does come along then this is a time when I could take them. I’m not really worried about that just now. I’m only 22 so my whole career is ahead of me so I’m relaxed about it.”

After the physical and psychological rigours of a demanding three-week stretch of high-profile, big-money links showpieces, MacIntyre, whose top-10 at Portrush got him what he called “the Brucie bonus” of an automatic place in next year’s Open, is looking forward to a bit of downtime.

After his ticker tape parade along the Oban promenade, of course.

“It feels like everyone from the town and the whole country has been messaging me,” he said. “It’s been a busy phone but I’ve got to enjoy this time because you don’t know how many more of them you’re going to get.

“Hopefully I get a fair few but you never know so this is one that I’ve got to really enjoy and then see where we go from here.”

Less than two years ago, MacIntyre marked his professional debut with an opening round of 78 on the MENA Tour in Kuwait.

The fact he bounced back from that to finish second in the same event showed his qualities. A week later he won in just his second start in the paid ranks.

Since then, he’s hurtled up through the divisions so quickly he probably got a fine and a couple of points on his licence for speeding.

“I could never have imagined after that 78 that I’d be finishing top 10 in The Open a couple of years later,” he said.

“Even last year, halfway through the season, I was thinking another year on the Challenge Tour would be fine. Then everything unfolded so quickly

“It’s been a real stepping stone from one event to another. It just keeps getting better and better.”

MacIntyre continues to take those stepping stones in his stride although many have found the amateur-to-pro transition as treacherous as a high-wire act in a strong breeze.

Key to his success has been the guiding hand of his manager at the Bounce agency, Iain Stoddart, who helped to get MacIntyre professional event experience while he was still an amateur. “Everything I’ve done has been guided through Stoddy and when I turned pro I was ready and knew what was coming,” he said. “I actually still prepare exactly same way that I did as an amateur. I don’t see the point in changing something that works.

“They (his management team) have kept everything as normal as it was when I was in the amateurs. In the weeks I have done well, like the British Masters and then at The Open, I’ve had my family around.

"So everything has just been normal. Even on the biggest stage in the world it just felt like a normal week.”

With a cheque from The Open worth about £250,000, MacIntyre, who has had two runners-up finishes on the European Tour this season, is on the cusp of the £1m mark in earnings.

Change the currency, though, and he is a euro millionaire. “It’s a bit daft isn’t it?” he chuckled.

One man who knows all about playing in the US is MacIntyre’s fellow Scot Russell Knox.

The two-time PGA Tour winner is Scotland’s leading player on the world rankings at No.72 but MacIntyre, who is now up to 102nd, is closing the gap.

Two canny lads, one from Inverness the other from Oban, have done pretty well.

“It just shows youngsters that, if you’re good at golf, it doesn’t matter where you’re from,” said Knox. “The only goal is to get the ball in the hole quickly.

"At 22, as Bob is now, I was just out of college, playing mini-tour golf and I wasn’t very good. Certainly not compared to what I am now.

"I definitely wasn’t ready to play PGA Tour or European Tour golf. But times have changed.

"When I first came on Tour, hardly anybody was 22. Maybe at 25 or 26, you were almost ready. But the average age was definitely in the 30s – and it doesn’t feel like that now, even on the PGA Tour.

"At 22, you’d better be ready or you’re getting lapped.”