Ever since the Bishop of Galloway left a five-footer laughably short on the Leith Links back in 1619, golfers have been cursing their putters, wrapping them round trees, snapping them over their thighs and flinging them furiously into a fusty corner of the potting shed. “The less said about the putter the better,” suggested good old Tony Lema back in the day. “Here is an instrument of torture, designed by Tantalus and forged in the devil's own smithy.”

Trying, and failing, to dunt a small, dimpled ba’ into a hole has left many a player shrieking and wailing like an agonised Banshee that’s just stubbed its toe on a gravestone.

Paul Lawrie has certainly endured his trials and tribulations on the greens down the seasons as opportunities spurned here and chances not taken there have left him hissing through clenched teeth. But wait. In this game of wildly fluctuating fortunes, the pendulum – or should that be the putter – seems to be swinging in his favour again.

Here at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns, the 46-year-old Aberdonian is in a purposeful mood as he prepares for an assault on a title he won back in 2001. Funnily enough, that conquest at the Old Course 15 years ago was achieved with a raking putt of 40-feet through the Valley of Sin on the last hole. “I remember arriving that week and I had been playing lovely all year but was putting poorly,” recalled Lawrie. “The rep from Odyssey (putter manufacturer) was there with the first two-ball putter they had ever made. There was only one and I had a go with it for about ten minutes on the practice green and I refused to give him it back. I ended up running off with it and I holed everything that week.”

Fast forward to 2015 and Lawrie doesn’t need to go pinching putters and cowering behind his golf bag whispering ‘psst, is that annoyed looking rep from Odyssey still hanging about?’

After a prolonged spell in the doldrums, the 1999 Open champion has reeled off back-to-back top-10 finishes in the Made in Denmark Championship and the KLM Open recently to hint at a resurgence. And the key to this upturn? “I’ve been putting better,” he said bluntly. “The company who I have a deal with, Caledonia, sent me a new one. I’ve always had quite a long stroke and always decelerated a wee bit so they made one for me with slightly firmer grooves and I’m rolling it much better.”

Lawrie is still down in 175th spot on the European Tour’s average putting league table but he is seeing progress and feeling the benefits.

“I’ve probably been taking four of seven (birdie) chances recently compared to a few months ago when I was taking maybe just one or two out of seven,” he noted as a means of comparison. “It’s amazing how one of those a day at our level can make a huge difference. One putt less a day is four shots less a week. If you’re four shots less you’re nearly guaranteed a win some weeks. When you start holing putts, it goes through your whole game and the confidence just builds and builds.”

Of course, the putting prowess that Lawrie and company wish they could possess is the preserve of Jordan Spieth, the all-conquering young Texan who finds the cup more times than a tea bag at a PG Tips factory. “It’s not just from 10 or 12 feet is it? How many does he hole from 30 to 50 feet?” Lawrie said with wonderment. “He just rams them in.”

At just 22 years of age, Spieth is the world No 1 and a two-time major champion. At 19, Blairgowrie’s Bradley Neil is trying to gain a solid foothold on the shoogly ladder that is professional golf. Two years ago, as an emerging young amateur, Neil partnered American pro Peter Uihlein to a share of second in the Dunhill Links team event. This week, Neil is looking for some kind of individual success. In his first nine events in the paid ranks, Neil has made just one cut but four solid rounds on his way to a second place finish in stage one of the European Tour’s qualifying school last week has lifted the morale. A good week here could lift him even more. “It’s quite hard to keep your expectations low,” said Neil ahead of the highly lucrative event that has a history of propelling players towards the tour or helping them safeguard their place on it. “This is the one event every year where someone does a Rory McIlroy or a Chris Doak or a George Murray or an Oliver Wilson. A top three here and you’ve got your card. I just want to do well. I’ve got a bit of momentum from last week and I want to keep that rolling.”