From Russia with clubs?

Not quite. Maybe a James Bond style dinner suit though. "I've been invited to a Royal & Ancient dinner next week at Carnoustie so I'm looking forward to that," said Stephen Dundas, the winner of the Amateur Championship the last time the unpaid game's showpiece event was staged over the Angus links in 1992.

While all roads lead to the east of Scotland again this week, Dundas kept going east a few years ago when he took up a role as director of golf at the lavish Pestovo Golf and Yacht Club near Moscow. A new life and a new career but you can't forget the conquests of the past.

Dundas was just 18 when he landed the Amateur crown 23 years ago, the same age as Blairgowrie's Bradley Neil who lifted the coveted title last June but will be unable to defend at Carnoustie due to his involvement in the US Open.

A 7 and 6 romp over Welshman Bradley Dredge, who would later become a neighbour of Dundas in Spain, gave the Glasgow man a resounding success in the 36-hole final. Was it a triumphant tale of the unexpected? Of course not. Bolstered by the words of encouragement from two of his golfing pals, a confident Dundas more than got by with a little help from his friends.

"I remember playing a practice round at Panmure on the Sunday before it started with Wilson Bryson and Craig Watson and they told me if I kept playing the way I was playing then I would win," recalled Dundas, who had reached the semi-finals of the Scottish Amateur Championship a few weeks earlier. "That comment from two great players gave me the extra boost of confidence to believe I could win it. I called my dad that night and told him I was going to win. I knew the whole week I was going to win."

Dundas's imperious march to glory almost came unstuck in the earlier rounds when he confronted a certain Padraig Harrington. "That was the only game that I lost a little bit of my form," said Dundas, who would go on to beat his fellow Scot, Stephen Gallacher, in the semi-finals. "I was two up after nine and in control of the match and then just played poorly for nine holes. Padraig double bogeyed the 17th and then put it out of bounds from the middle of the fairway on 18 so I got lucky in that match."

Harrington was distraught. He would find redemption at Carnoustie 15 years later, of course, when he survived two calamitous trips into the Barry Burn on the 18th before beating Sergio Garcia in a play-off to win the 2007 Open Championship. "Padraig has mentioned that match with me many times in press conferences and he did again when he won The Open so I guess it affected him pretty badly," Dundas said.

Harrington would go on to win a further two Major titles while Gallacher and Dredge, both vanquished by Dundas at Carnoustie, have become European Tour champions. Dundas's professional playing career did not scale the heights of his amateur crusades but passing on his bountiful experiences and wisdom through coaching continues to give him considerable pleasure and fulfilment.

"I don't have any regrets and I'm very happy doing what I do now," he said. "If I knew half of what I know now - how to practise and train properly - then maybe things would be different. The Scottish Golf Union are so professional and well organised these days and someone like Bradley Neil has a lot of good people around him so I'm sure he'll be fine when he turns pro. After I turned professional I had three years of playing horrible golf and earning no money. I didn't sample professional golf the way I sampled amateur golf."

Back at Carnoustie in 2015, a new generation of golfers will be hoping to produce their own amateur dramatics.