AH, the good old days. At 36, Adam Scott is hardly of a vintage where he should be sitting at a coal fire and relaying tales from sepia-tinted times of yore but return trips to Scotland always stoke up happy memories for the canny, softly-spoken Australian.

Scott may have slipped those shoulders into the Green Jacket back in 2013 with a thrilling victory in the Masters at Augusta but there are other moments that remained seared on the mind.

Scott, the world No 15, is making his first appearance in the Scottish Open since 2009 but go back seven years from then, to 2002, and this young golfing wizard of Oz was declaring himself the Monarch of the Glen here in the cradle of the game.

A rampant, rampaging Scott turned the Diageo Championship at Gleneagles into a triumphant procession to a coronation as he romped to a shimmering 10-shot victory as he claimed the third European Tour win of his rapidly blossoming career.

Reminders of the victory, and the shin-dig afterwards, almost get him welling up with dewy-eyed nostalgia.

“I remember a lot about that tournament at Gleneagles and maybe to this day it's the best golf I've ever played in my career,” he said.

“To win a tournament by ten shots? That doesn't happen very often. Everything just kind of fell into place for me, and I was playing out of my mind a little bit that year. They were good times.

“Funnily enough, I just bumped into Brett Rumford in the (Dundonald) locker room and I remember I was with him that night when we flew back down to Surrey where we were all staying at the time.

"We all went out for a few that night. They are nice memories.”

Scott is well versed in the history and the intricacies of the links game. It was all part of his golfing education, after all.

“I was about 16-years-old when I took a first trip over to Scotland to play some junior tournaments,” he reflected. “I got a taste for links golf … and a taste for whisky. Maybe the whisky was a couple of years later?

"I did two tours that year. I came over in the middle of summer and then at the end of summer. I played a lot of golf.

"I started up north and played Royal Aberdeen and then St Andrews and Carnoustie. We then played Western Gailes, Turnberry, Troon and Prestwick.”

Having missed the cut in his last competitive outing in the US Open back in June, Scott has been left stewing in his golfing juices and he is keen to get cracking this week as he looks to build up a head of steam for Royal Birkdale.

The artistry and the invention of golf by the sea really gets rouse the spirits even if it takes a while to get back into the swing of it again.

“We don’t really play links golf now at all, especially on the US Tour and I think the adjustment is tougher than you think,” said Scott, who let the 2012 Open slip from his grasp at Lytham. with a late quartet of bogeys.

“We are so used to playing a certain way that it takes time. Like everything, golf has evolved but it's great to come here and challenge yourself in a different way.

"In the past, coming over here 10 days before the Open and playing the host venue really worked for me.

“But this year, I’ve had a slight schedule change and less tournament play leading up to the Open and I think I needed that competitive play.

"So coming back to the Scottish Open really ticks the boxes and hopefully, with four days here, that will be enough links golf to get me ready.”