Well, it’s birled round again folks. The floral art would make the gardens of Capability Brown look like the ravaged Raith interchange, the fairways and greens have had had more manicuring than an ageing Hollywood dame and the strength in depth of the field is deeper than a burial at sea. Yes, the Lochwinnoch Husband & Wife Spring Salver always puts on a shimmering show.

Out in Augusta, meanwhile, the Masters has rolled in again. Rather like the Tuesday column, the gathering in Georgia has that same sense of, well, sameness. Sighing, eye-rolling readers will no doubt vouch for the truth in that particular observation.

The Masters remains an ideal occasion for reflective meandering. If you’re not strolling down Magnolia Lane then you’re wandering down memory lane. Throw in some sodden clumps of dewy-eyed nostalgia and plenty of schmaltzy nods to the past, in addition to a few black and while montages accompanied by a drifting, orchestral score, and you have all the ingredients for this annual celebration of cosy, comforting biscuit tin golf.

The first major of the men’s season is upon us. And let’s hope it passes without any of the palaver which overshadowed the first major of the women’s campaign at the ANA Inspiration. The other week, this scribe scribbled a piece with Kevin McAlpine, a very handy golfer himself and the son of the former Dundee United goalkeeper Hamish, ahead of his first major championship as caddie for Lexi Thompson. He probably didn’t think the event he was previewing would end quite as dramatically.

The retrospective four-shot penalty that Thompson incurred after a viewer phoned in to report an infraction during the ball-marking process in Saturday’s third round had the kind of unsettling effect you’d get after swallowing a dodgy prawn. That she was told about the penalty – two shots for the initial error and another two strokes for turning in an incorrect scorecard – after 12 holes of her final round the following day when leading was all slightly bamboozling and did little to help the sneering, widely held belief that golf can often be unfathomable and has a habit of shooting itself in the foot with some of its quirks, intricacies, antiquated penalties and lack of common sense.

Now, I’ve never been a big fan of those armchair anoraks and couch crusaders who like to assume the moral high ground amid smug displays of goading piety. You often wonder how scrupulous these self-appointed custodians of integrity are when thrashing away in the local medal?

However, the simple fact of the matter, is that Thompson’s marking of the ball was decidedly dicey. Have a keek at the footage. You can’t see her marker in the first instance but when she picks up her ball and puts it back down again, the marker becomes clearly visible. Careless? Certainly. Intentional? Well, only Thompson knows that. “100% not intentional at all, I didn't realise,” she said afterwards. The golfing top brass are, mercifully, set to alter this retrospective penalty rule in 2019 with the reasonable judgement of a player not being second-guessed based on later evidence coming to light.

Trial by TV remains an inconsistent and infuriating medium given that great swathes of a tournament field are not on the cameras but if you are involved in the sharp end of affairs in a major championship, then heightened coverage and intense scrutiny is simply par for the course.

Thompson was in tears after being informed of the penalty but rallied superbly to force a play-off only to eventually lose to Son Yeon Ryu. By the end, the excellent Ryu had almost been brushed aside in the mouth-frothing frenzy as many commentators, analysts and pundits lambasted the unfairness of the situation and hailed Thompson’s resilience in the face of adversity while hoisting her into the pantheon of the inspirational. Thompson is a hugely popular, obliging figure and one of the poster girls of a vibrant women’s scene but the gushings, outpourings and sympathetic fawnings at the end from those whose were there to give some objective view on proceedings bordered on the nauseating. In many ways, it showed a complete lack of respect to the eventful champion Ryu. It would have been interesting to see what the general reaction was had it been Ryu, or another South Korean golfer, involved in a rules rumpus? And had Thompson still managed to triumph in the wake of all the controversy, would she have been subsequently viewed through narrowing eyes of suspicion?

It was a messy, messy incident and yet another downbeat news story for golf to deal with in its on-going battle with negative perceptions. Let’s just hope the major moments at this week’s Masters are ones to remember for all the right reasons.