Nothing is cheap these days. In fact, even the word ‘cheap’ is now about five per cent more expensive in this sentence than it was in the previous one.

Having spent a week in New York, which hit the wallet with the same kind of destructive force you’d get if you took a mallet to a Ming vase, it’s back to the auld claes and porridge now.

I picked up the tabs for a couple of meals in a variety of restaurants during our sojourn and they were so eye-wateringly expensive, the bills may as well have been printed on the US Constitution.

“Did you get the chits?” asked my wife as she sooked up the dregs of the 1869 Chateau Lafite Rothschild with a straw. “I did when I saw the price,” I spluttered with an incredulous grimace.

It could’ve been worse, of course. We could’ve been forking out for a ticket to next year’s Ryder Cup in the Big Apple.

Over the past few days, you may have read or heard about the pricing structure for the 2025 transatlantic tussle at Bethpage State Park.

It’s been hard to ignore given that the rumblings and grumblings have just about registered on the seismometers in the offices of the US Geological Survey.

The headline maker was the $749.41 it will cost for a single daily ticket during the three days of........

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