A son of the Muckle Toon of Langholm, with a penchant for classic rock and honest howffs, a decade of reporting on the Royal & Ancient game has kept me on the straight and narrow despite my own wild attempts at this often infuriating pursuit.
The honour was passed over at the closing ceremony of the event at Medinah, Illinois. First Minister Alex Salmond accepted the ceremonial Silver Putter on behalf of Gleneagles, Perthshire, which will host the tournament in 2014.
The ceremony had a Scottish flavour to mark the return of the event to Scotland for the first time in around 40 years. Among the European successes was Aberdeen's Paul Lawrie, who recorded his team's biggest victory of the day as they trounced the US in the singles to lift the cup.
It was not quite the welcome back Paul Lawrie had hoped for either. If battering away the opening tee-shot of the Ryder Cup on his debut in 1999 was a tough introduction to the biennial bout, then the 43-year-old endured a tough re-introduction to the fray yesterday. The US were rampant and the Europeans were rattled.
We had been anticipating an evenly fought tussle at Medinah and it lived up to that particular billing during an opening session of foursomes that were shared 2-2.
