Speak to a variety of sporty folk about their sporty business and they’ll often use the phrase “living the dream” to cheerily describe their athletic endeavours. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never wanted to live out any of my dreams because, well, they tend to be nightmarish visions.

The other night, for instance, this scribe had a dream that featured former Krypton Factor host, Gordon Burns, asking me a variety of mental agility questions that I simply couldn’t answer. And with each incorrect, panic-stricken response, a pterodactyl would inch menacingly towards me until the increasingly terrifying din of its clicking beak led to me waking up in a gasping lather and leaping from my bed with the same kind of boisterous gusto that propelled Archimedes from his bath tub.

The bold Archimedes may have got away with careering around the streets of Syracuse in the scuddy but a similar, shrieking performance in the middle of the night in Glasgow is not to be recommended. Well, that’s what the police constable told me anyway.

Now, where we? Oh yes. Living the dream. This week it’s the first major of the golfing season as the good ladies of the LPGA Tour do battle in the ANA Inspiration.

Competing in these showpiece occasions is what players dream of but, for many, such dates in the diary are fanciful notions. Speaking recently to Scottish golfers, Kelsey MacDonald and Carly Booth, about their hopes for the season, the undercurrent of frustrated futility was obvious as the schedule for the 2018 Ladies European Tour remains patchy and uncertain.

The fact that very schedule tends to get updated in a piecemeal fashion only highlights the sense of insecurity.

Since the start of the year, there have been five events on the Ladies European Tour but four of them were in Australia and the other was in South Africa. That little spell of events, in essence, highlights the straits into which players on the circuit have been plunged. There are fewer opportunities to make money but hefty expenses on long-distance travel need to be forked out when those chances do come up.

The next tournament is not for another three weeks while other events on the list are either co-sanctioned, limited field, elite field or major championships. And what does that all mean? That’s right. Fewer starts for the rank-and-file.

That some players have had to take alternative, part-time jobs to subsidise income is well documented but remains a jarring, sobering reality. That concept will be alien to a variety of sportsmen and women in other pursuits, which is arguably the way it should be. After all, top-level, professional sport demands enough dedication, hard work, discipline and sacrifice without the burden and distraction of so many hours of other employment.

With the Solheim Cup coming to Gleneagles in 2019 and this summer’s European Team Championship also being held at the Perthshire resort, these should be times of excitement and anticipation for the Scottish girls in particular.

Every player has ambitions and targets. That’s what provides the drive and the focus. But garnering enough ranking points to make any form of impact on the qualifying standings of these two events – particularly August’s team affair – means the likes of MacDonald and Booth must already have a feeling of resignation.

There is a simple solution, of course; play better when you get into events. Then again, when your competitive instincts and general sharpness has been dulled by a lack of top-level action, it’s hellishly difficult to come out with all guns blazing. It’s akin to being parachuted into the frontline of a raging battle armed with a wonky water pistol.

On the LPGA Tour, meanwhile, this week’s opening major is one of the highlights on a jam-packed, global schedule worth a record-breaking $68.75million.

The US-based circuit remains the dream destination for female touring professionals everywhere. For many of them, though, the riches and opportunity in this land of plenty is nothing more than a pipe dream.