The golf writers are a learned old lot. When we’re not gracefully composing another prize-winning article, and letting our typing fingers dance across the laptop keys with the elegant nonchalance of Richard Clayderman tinkling his ivories, then we’re embroiled in scholarly, convivial chinwags that used to be the reserve of an ancient Greek symposium.

This auld stick and ba’ game, of course, tends to lend itself to such expansive examination, deep-thinking dissection and academic analysis.

If, for instance, you’d popped your head into the media centre at last week’s Scottish Open, then your ears would’ve been stirred by the sage pearls of wisdom and erudite musings that echoed from within.

“Oh, for **** sake,” muttered one of my cultured colleagues with the enlightened philosophising you’d hear when Aristotle dunted his knee on one of the pillars of the Parthenon.

The reason for this harrumphing outpouring, of course, was the release of the tee-times for the weekend’s play in the domestic showpiece.

Gazing down the drawsheet and seeing that the leaders were off at 15:40 on the Saturday and Sunday was about as uplifting as reading the sombre inscriptions on a row of crumbling tombstones.

Saying that, even the crotchety golf writers stopped grousing and carping come........

© Herald Scotland