THE worst thing about hosting the Scottish Open the week before the Open is that most folk want to talk about the Open when the focus really should be on the Scottish Open.

And when you’ve got the reigning Open champion in the room, it’s hard to avoid the bloomin’ Open. Are you still following?

Of course, last July’s Open Championship concluded with a shoot-out for the ages.

It was the showdoon at Troon as Henrik Stenson staved off an equally inspired Phil Mickelson with a quite magical 63 to lift the Claret Jug for the first time and end his major drought.

With victory comes responsibility, heightened expectation and increased demands and that is something the 41-year-old admits has been quite a hard thing to handle over the past 12 months.

Following that momentous moment at Troon, Stenson went on to win gold at the Rio Olympics with a duel with Justin Rose and he started the 2017 campaign with a trio of top-10s in his first four events.

Since then, however, the Swede has missed the cut in both the Masters and the US Open, the first two majors of the year.

Being a major winner has, as he says, left him “walking a quarter of an inch taller” but it can be tough at the top.

"It's kind of like before and after having kids," Stenson said ahead of the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Dundonald Links, which is just a little dink with a metaphorical wedge to the scene of his greatest conquest at Troon.

"When you have kids, your life changes and it's like you can't believe what you did with all the time you had before you had children.

"It's a little bit the same. I don't know what I did with my time before I had the Claret Jug in my possession. And I kind of treat it like my baby, as well.

"It's been a busy year, but I don't want to sit here and complain about it. That's certainly not the way we look at it.

"I've been pretty good at saying no, but you've still got to do a lot of things and that impacts your focus on your game to a degree.

"For the year that you are the defending champion, every week you show up at a tournament it's new, it's fresh, they haven't seen you since you won, and it's all the pictures and all the autographs and all the interviews.

"In this game you've got to be in the moment and you've got to be focused and where you're at now as well as looking forward.

"And you're constantly talking about what happened six months, nine months, 12 months ago, so it's easy to be a little stuck in the past.

"At the same time, the golf ball doesn't know what happened last year. You have to tell it every time you're playing. That's what I need to focus on now this week and next week, to go out there and do my best and do all the right things.

"I think it's going to be a bit of turning the page next week when I have to return the Claret Jug on Monday. Then we're kind of looking ahead instead of looking back."

Stenson will always have the memories of that titanic Troon day. He also has the footage.

“If I ever need inspiration I know where to find the tape,” he said. “It’s funny. You're watching that round, and I can see and still pick flaws in it, which is both kind of good and bad, because it's an amazing round of golf, given the circumstances

"But that's the beauty of this game. You're never done. You're never finished. You don't reach that level of completion. So you can always be better.”

Troon in 2016 will take some beating, mind you. Now, let's start talking about the Scottish Open ...