These are rabid times of hype, hyperbole and hysteria when even the most trivial of endeavours are championed and glorified as if they were some earth-shuddering event that will send this spinning clump of space rock hurtling off its axis.

If, for instance, you filmed yourself coaxing an egg to the ideal level of poached slooteryness and uploaded the footage of it gently simmering to a fairly modest climax onto Facebook or Twitter, you'd be immediately showered with the kind of gushing torrents of thunderous acclaim usually reserved for global peacemakers, medical geniuses, giants of science and the bloke who invented the chocolate digestive.

For those who have actually soared to the levels of genuine achievement, the hoopla knows no bounds. It's all the fault of us lot in the media, of course, as we build things up like Hadrian erecting those Roman partitions.

Here in cut-throat world of golf, the pressure to succeed is so great your ears just about pop off the side your own head. While those in the rarefied air at the top level enjoy a life of untold riches, glamour and a full compliment of lugs, the rank and file muddle away in the margins. Last week , at the British Sociological Association's annual conference in Glasgow, an expert in the field of all things associated with British sociology proclaimed that vast numbers of touring pros live a lonely life on a meagre income spent in the midst of intense rivalries. They should try golf writing for a living.

It's tough at the top, as they say, and for Bradley Neil, the young Scottish amateur who is set to take the pro plunge later in the summer, he has got it all to look forward to. The Blairgowrie teenager has already had a taste of the high life since winning last year's Amateur Championship but that, in itself, comes with its own problems and pressures.

The 19-year-old is a confident, obliging, approachable and engaging young man and certainly doesn't possess that hang dog trait that can hinder many sporting sons of this nation. Belief in your own abilities, and the ability to back that promise up with results, is a valuable commodity and Neil has certainly proved his worth at the highest level of the amateur scene. For the past 10 months or so, he has been plunged into a new realm, as the spin offs from winning the Amateur Championship entice and, probably, torment in equal measure and the boundaries between the unpaid game and the cut-and-thrust of the professional scene becomes ever more blurred and disorientating.

Getting to tee-up in the Open, the Masters and the US Open are opportunities that not many golfers get to savour in their careers and now Neil is comparing his game with the absolute best in the world. In many senses, it is an unrealistic analysis at this stage of his development. When he missed the cut in the Masters the other week, he talked about giving himself a 'kick up the a***' and having to 'work harder'. That is a good, industrious ethic and Neil is clearly not one for settling for second best and accepting that it's ok to do ok but, on the other side of the ball marker, there is a danger that he can put too much pressure on his young shoulders as he scrutinizes himself in the company of seasoned, battle hardened professionals and exceptional young superstars who come about as regularly as Hayley's Comet. Neil spent a day in the company of Rory McIlroy during a practice round at Augusta and listened to the world No 1, who is just six years his senior, pour out plaudits about how he could make it on the PGA Tour in a pre-tournament press conference. That's all very well, and McIlroy was never going to say 'nope, Bradley ain't got it', but all this baggage and bluster adds to the burden of potentially overwhelming expectation.

Neil has another PGA Tour invitation to look forward to, at the Memorial in June, before he competes in the US Open just a week or so before his anticipated professional debut in the Scottish Hydro Challenge on the European Challenge Tour but the last thing he wants to do is make the pro plunge feeling bruised, battered and low on confidence after a series of eye-opening and chastening experiences among the global elite. He has been wooed by a management company and opportunity lies seductively on the horizon. Personally, though, I was delighted to see him finish in a share of second place on the amateur scene in the Battle Trophy at Crail over the weekend. It will do his confidence a power of good to get a morale-boosting result among his ain' folk under his belt again. The importance of making that potentially turbulent transition in high spirits and on the back of a good run of from cannot be underestimated.

By dining at the top table, Neil has been tasting a lot of jam of late but the bread and butter of his comfort zone in the amateur game will stand him in good stead as a new chapter in his promising career looms ever nearer.