Some time last year we were told that Colin Montgomerie had performed a "U-turn" and would now be interested in a second stint as Ryder Cup captain when that event comes back to Scotland in 2014.

Previously, the man who steered Europe to victory last time around had said he had done his bit and that his only interest thereafter was in returning to the team as a player.

Given his long association with the match, the realisation that he is never going to do so may have had an impact, but his change of heart did seem to have the potential to ensure that there was a credible Scottish contender for the key role at Gleneagles.

Sam Torrance and Bernard Gallagher have, of course, also led the Europeans to victory in Ryder Cup matches, but their European Tour days are now long behind them.

As the only Scot of that generation to have won a major title – two, in fact – Sandy Lyle still uses a combination of long-standing exemptions and invitations to tee it up pretty regularly on tour, but also seems to be regarded, rightly or wrongly, as being a wee bit out of touch with the next generation.

So, Monty it must be then – except that there is growing conviction among those who matter that another Scot is emerging as an even more obvious contender.

Thirteen years have now elapsed since Paul Lawrie became the last Scot to win a major but, far from easing into golfing dotage, the 43-year-old is in the form of his life.

Never mind staying in touch with the next generation, quite a few of them are doubtless wishing he was a lot closer to joining the Seniors Tour as he turns up week-in, week-out to pick up the big cheques.

Many of us believe Lawrie has never received the credit he deserved for winning the Open at the competition's toughest venue, Carnoustie, in 1999 in record-breaking fashion, partly because his victory was overshadowed by Jean Van de Velde's meltdown when he went paddling at the 18th.

Lawrie recovered from a 10-shot deficit going into the final round before seeing off the Frenchman and Justin Leonard, the champion of two years earlier, by three clear shots in a four-hole play-off in which he recorded birdies at the two most notorious finishing holes in the game. However, that was just one of many exceptional achievements in his career.

It was eight years before another European won a major, 11 before another from the UK achieved it and he remains the last player from mainland Britain – let alone Scotland – to have won one of golf's biggest prizes.

While his form went through severe lapses in the decade after that triumph, there was a first flicker of what was to come when he became only the eighth player in history to register an albatross at an Open, in 2009, before he ended a nine-year wait for a Tour win at the Andalucian Open last year.

Since then, he has gone from strength to strength, winning again in Qatar earlier this year, 13 years after his previous victory there, as he began what looks like an irresistible charge towards a place on this season's Ryder Cup team.

At Medina, he will defend a fine record from his solitary previous appearance, when he took 3½ points from a possible five, a 70% success rate that outstrips even Monty's at Ryder Cups.

That he is in the form to do so seems borne out by his performances, in particular, in the two elite matchplay events. In the World Golf Championship event in Arizona in February, Lawrie saw off Justin Rose, the ever-hyped Englishman, and Japanese wunderkind Ryo Ishikawa before, last month, reaching the semi-finals of the World Matchplay Championship. There he took out Ryder Cup rival contenders in Peter Hanson and Thomas Bjorn as well as a fellow major winner, Retief Goosen on his way to the final four.

All that without mentioning just why all in Scottish golf should heavily support his candidacy: his exceptional contribution to the grassroots game in this country.

Realising there was a desperate vacuum in terms of golf development, Lawrie set up his foundation some years ago. It has already produced a double Scottish Amateur champion in David Law and now sponsors both the Scottish Boys' and Girls' Championships. The introduction of the Paul Lawrie Invitational has also been a fine addition to the Scottish PGA's Tartan Tour.

Lawrie may not quite have the local knowledge that Monty possesses as a resident of Perthshire, but spending a bit more time at Gleneagles Hotel over the next couple of years would not do a fine family man any harm in terms of brownie points with Marian and their golf-daft boys.

In any case, if Glasgow-born Monty felt he was close enough to home to perform a leg with the Olympic torch in Aberdeen, then, presumably, the reverse is also true . . .