LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Robert MacIntyre is used to making on-the-fly adjustments, ones that have brought him to this moment — tied for fourth at the PGA Championship after shooting a 5-under-par 66 on Thursday.

The left-handed golfer grew up battling the swirling gusts customary to his hometown of Oban in the Scottish Highlands. He dominated Scotland’s amateur scene on the best links courses in the world, where failure to acclimate to changing conditions can drive you into the ground. But this week — as he plays the PGA Championship as a PGA Tour member for the first time — MacIntyre is facing his biggest adjustment yet.

MacIntyre earned his PGA Tour card after a successful 2023 DP World Tour season (formerly the European Tour). But since picking up his bags and establishing a base in Orlando, Fla., to play in the tour full time, MacIntyre has been open about the fact he’s struggling to adapt to his new lifestyle. He’s chasing his dream of winning major championships, but the day-to-day inner workings of that effort are not what he expected.

The weeks are long. The stakes are high. Many players keep to themselves. The environment is a stark contrast to MacIntyre’s experience on the DP World Tour, and it’s not just because he’s playing new golf courses with foreign strains of grass. His European peers like to chat. The Americans, in his experience, don’t. Swing coaches, psychologists and trainers accompany their players to practice sessions and dinners. On the DP World Tour, everyone is in it together. Time on the road felt like home away from home for MacIntyre. So far, the PGA Tour has been far from that.