WAY back yonder, when partly-clothed men with beards whiled away the hours making up thought-provoking quotes, somebody mumbled something about the face being the mirror of the mind.

Have a keek at that byline picture - yes, that one staring alarmingly out at you in the top corner of this page - and you begin to get an idea about what those pondering chin-strokers were banging on about.

Captured on camera trying to drum up another weekly column, the tortured rictus of this correspondent illustrates perfectly the internal struggle and brain-boggling anguish that such a task can stoke up. Perhaps we need to adopt the Jason Dufner approach?

As far as facial expressions go, the new US PGA champion gives little away and displays about as much emotion on his fizzog as the Great Sphinx of Giza. Until he got his hands on the Wanamaker Trophy on Sunday night and creaked himself into a smile of jubilation, Dufner seemed to amble around Oak Hill with the kind of mournful look that resembled Les Dawson opening a rather disappointing bank statement. A first prize of almost £945,000 certainly helped matters on that front, of course.

In these times of great golfing parity, Dufner joined the growing band of maiden major winners and, in the US PGA itself, he became the fourth first-time major winner of the contest in the past five years. The 36-year-old also became the 15th different first-timer in the last 19 majors, while 19 different players have won the last 21 major championships. Since freeing itself from the almost tyrannical rule of Tiger Woods during his all-conquering days, the global game continues to flourish in this period of liberation.

In the final event on golf's grand slam rota, Dufner, who always seemed to conjure that consistent "thwack" of pure ball-striking, hit the bullseye in what was once known as Glory's Last Shot.

From a Scottish perspective, let's hope it's not too long before Marc Warren gets another crack at it. The Rutherglen man's share of 12th place, the best finish by a Scot in a major since Alastair Forsyth tied for ninth in the same championship back in 2008, was another significant step forward. Having gatecrashed the world's top 100 - well, only just, given that he has moved up to 99th - Warren, who was down in 208th position on the global order this time last year, continues to head in the right direction.

Three successive rounds in the 60s at Oak Hill, following an opening card of 74, was an impressive and spirited salvage operation and showed that he has the game and the temperament that can stand up to the rigours of the game's most testing examinations.

It's hard to believe that the US PGA was only Warren's third outing in one of golf's big four. Given that he won his first European Tour title back in 2006, added a second a year later and struck up a World Cup-winning alliance with Colin Montgomerie that same season, you tend to assume that he would have racked up a few major appearances over the course of the past seven years. Yet his debut in a showpiece event did not arrive until last season's US Open, where he finished in a tie for 65th, while he qualified for July's Open at Muirfield only to miss the halfway cut.

Oak Hill was a whole new experience for him and, having barged his way into the upper echelons, his appetite for more will have been whetted and his expectations will have grown.

He is also marching into new territory on those world rankings. The former Walker Cup player has never been in the top 100 before and, at this stage of the 2011 campaign, he was languishing down at 606th. It is very much a case of onwards and upwards for a player whose mental resolve was being scrutinised by the doubters in the wake of his Scottish Open meltdown at Castle Stuart last year and his failure to win both this season's Spanish Open and the BMW PGA Championship when in commanding positions coming down the stretch.

It could be worse, of course. He could be Tiger Woods, Lee Westwood, Rory McIlroy . . . men who have so many questions fired at them, they must feel as if they are sitting in some Mastermind chair from hell.

Woods said "pass" again in a major as he failed to contend after promising so much but at least McIlroy answered a few as he shared eighth. He showed tenacity to rally on Friday with a 67 after veering towards another missed cut and bounced back from a triple-bogey on the final day to remain in the top-10.

He's been knocked here, there and everywhere during a tumultuous season, with the great and the good from different golfing generations telling him what he should be doing and how he should be living his life. Maybe, just maybe, the corner is about to be turned. Westwood, meanwhile, hit another brick wall as he slumped out of the running in his 63rd major outing and then responded to the brickbats on his social media site by having a rather robust and inadvisable slagging match with his online detractors.

The face may have been the mirror of the mind back in ye day, but as we hurtle towards technological Armageddon, you just need to click a button to find out what all the twits on Twitter are thinking. And we call it progress?