It is perhaps fitting that Jimmy Walker is a keen astronomer.
Given how rapidly the American's star has been rising over the past few months, he could probably peer into his own telescope and see himself hurtling up alongside the various celestial bodies that kick about in the sky.
As the 35-year-old blethered away during his Scottish Open press conference, you were half expecting someone in the media centre to start whistling The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen. Inevitably, everybody ended up talking a load of aurora borealis.
"If you get clear skies in the winters over here, I bet it's an astronomer's dream," said Walker as he pondered the delights of a night gazing heavenwards in the Granite City. A few Aberdonians tend to do the same when they tumble out the howfs of Union Street on a Saturday night.
Walker's meteoric rise has certainly been eye-catching. He had gone 187 PGA tour events without recording a single victory until he won three in his first eight tournaments of the 2014 campaign.
He has propelled himself to 19th on the world rankings and has taken the step up in his stride. Having shared eighth in April's Masters before going on to tie for ninth at the US Open, Walker, who has already secured a debut appearance in the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles in September, has shown that he can be a genuine contender on golf's grandest stages.
With the Open at Hoylake looming on the horizon, the Oklahoma-born player is using this visit to Scotland as a tune-up following a rigorous introduction to the quirks of the links game in last year's championship at Muirfield, where he missed the cut
"The Friday at Muirfield last year was a bit of a culture shock; the course had changed so dramatically," he added. "Hitting wedges from 210 yards didn't really compute then. I learned a lot and that's why I came here, to see a bit more of that."
The star gazer may yet throw a Star Spangled Spanner in the Scottish Open works this week.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article