There was a time when folk actually communicated by utilising something called a mouth and used the words and sounds that would spew forth from this oral cavity to embroil themselves in the face-to-face phenomenon known as a conversation.

In these rapid-fire days, of course, basic human interaction is carried out on ruddy Twitter. When good old Madonna had her tumble last week, a gobsmacked world was as entranced as when another crumbling relic, the Berlin Wall, took a fall. Before Madge's backside had even dunted the floor, the witty observations and wry comments came flooding in on a tsunami of technological tappety-tap-taps and instant reaction. If you waited a mere two minutes to offer some musings, your witterings would be so antiquated and out of fashion by then, you may as well have uploaded a picture of a mangle and a stovepipe hat. Goodness knows then what the Twitteratti would make of this correspondent basing a column around something that happened in the pre-historic world of two weeks ago? The Dead Sea Scrolls are probably more up to date.

When Anirban Lahiri won his second European Tour event within the space of a fortnight, the qualifying school graduate from India attracted the kind of eye-opening attention usually reserved for ageing pop singers toppling off a stage. The 27-year-old's victories in the Malaysian Open and the Hero Indian Open made him something of, well, a national hero. This week in Florida, Lahiri will be hobnobbing with the great and the good of the global scene when he competes in the WGC Cadillac Championship. By getting into the swing of things on the European stage, the doors of worldwide opportunity are now swinging open.

It may boast the oldest golf club outside of the UK - the Royal Calcutta club was formed in 1829 - but this Royal & Ancient game in India is still in its relative infancy. At most, it is reckoned that there are around 150,000 golfers in this vast country of over 1.2 billion inhabitants. Cricket will always be the sporting god in this neck of the woods. The pursuit where you thrash away at a stationary ba', meanwhile, still has a journey as long as the Vivek Express railway route to go before it attains religious-like status. Cost and access to a sport that remains somewhat of a marginal, elitist activity are the prohibitive factors in a nation where there are 270 golf 'facilities' dotted around the land and a good whack of these are on military bases. It's hardly your game for the common man. Then again, one of India's golfing trailblazers provided something of a rags-to-riches tale. Ali Sher was a caddie at Delhi Golf Club before rising up through the ranks and becoming the first Indian professional to win the Indian Open with his victory in 1991. Five years later, when an Indian three-ball were invited to compete in the Dunhill Cup at St Andrews for the first time, Sher, and his team-mates Jeev Milka Singh and Gaurav Ghei, claimed a sizeable scalp when they beat a Scotland side featuring the formidable Colin Montgomerie. Rumours that a commemorative marble statue of the conquest, depicting a furious Monty storming off the Old Course, was to be commissioned and placed on a plinth behind the Taj Mahal proved to be unfounded.

Singh has gone on to achieve a quartet of European Tour wins, including the 2012 Scottish Open, while another inspiring Indian, Arjun Atwal, blazed a trail in the USA, becoming the first player from the country to earn a place on the PGA Tour before striking an historic blow in 2010 by winning the Wyndham Championship.

It has now fallen on Lahiri, who beat Tiger Woods in an exhibition match in Delhi last year, to carry the torch after his recent exploits propelled him into the rarefied air of the world's top 40. Lahiri, the son of an army doctor, is well aware of the footsteps that he is trying to follow. "It's always about doing what these guys have done," said Lahiri, who has a place in next month's Masters and will earn starts in the US Open, the Open and the US PGA Championship should he safeguard his place in the world's top 60 . "Play in the majors, play in America, try to win globally and make Indian golf more recognizable.

The aforementioned Atwal, meanwhile, believes there is much more to come. "Jeev and myself were the first generation of players who came out of India and were the first to win outside India," he said. "These guys have seen it done. And there's going to be more of them. For Anirban's generation, they are not afraid."

This week's latest global gathering in Florida will be the next stern test of the mettle for the upwardly mobile Lahiri.

AND ANOTHER THING

Roswell, the moon landings, Tiger Woods? Conspiracy theories know no bounds. A journeyman pro called Dan Olsen made some wild accusations on an American radio station at the weekend and claimed that Woods was serving a doping ban while stating that, amid some grand cover up, the former world No 1 used an illegal ball and "that's why Tiger Woods never signed a ball and gave it away." Radio blah blah? I think so.