Back in more carefree times, when you could still smoke your calabash pipe in a library, take robust gargles of illicit home brew as a regular eye opener and ride bareback through the narrow streets and loanings, January was a fairly quiet, humdrum month.

Nowadays, of course, it is a fraught spell of the year that has been annexed by hand-wringing health gurus bawling, shrieking and wagging their pious fingers in your increasingly saggy face as they shame you into extinguishing the pipe, pouring the booze down the cundy and strapping a saddle on to that untamed cuddy for safety purposes. Yes, the gates to the prison of annual abstinence have swung open and, like great swathes of the population, you're probably now serving a teeth-grinding sentence whereby you deny yourself some of your few remaining pleasures while all the time wishing you were smoking, drinking and careering about on a horse. And, preferably, all at the same time.

In the world of golf, meanwhile, it's the time of the year when the global game yawns, stretches and blinks itself awake. On the tee is 2015 and there's plenty to look forward to. If 2014 was all Ryder Cup razzmatazz in the cradle of the game, then Scotland's summer shenanigans in the new campaign will have the golf writers wheezing and panting like dogs in a sauna. The Scottish Open at Gullane, an Open at St Andrews, the Ladies Scottish Open, the Women's British Open and the new Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Matchplay on the European Tour will all be staged in a manic month.

It promises to be quite a year for Rory McIlroy, too. Already, fevered observers are casting their eyes to April and the Masters at Augusta where the Northern Irishman will be aiming to become only the sixth player to win all four majors and complete the career grand slam. Of course, the small matter of an impending court case with a former management company could litter the road to Georgia with nails. With lawyers set to rifle through his finances and personal life, the whole affair will be distracting and, potentially, embarrassing. We all know what McIlroy is like when his mind is in a muddle - the dreary 2013 season was an example of that - and, as he stands on the threshold of the pantheon of golfing greats, it would be an almighty blow for the game if his bid for a third successive major win was scuppered by off-course issues. With Tiger Woods working his way back to fitness - again - and Jordan Spieth continuing the kind of upward trajectory usually reserved for vessels of space exploration, the build up to the first major of the season will be as frenzied as a night in a fever hospital. Amid this hoopla, a slimline Phil Mickelson may just be fancying his chances of being the comeback man of 2015. He too is aiming for the career grand slam - the US Open still eludes him after six runners-up finishes - and having failed to record a win on the PGA Tour last season for the first time since 2003, Lefty will be doubly determined to get it right in the new year. Dustin Johnson, meanwhile, has plenty to prove. He hasn't played since August after taking a leave of absence to deal with 'personal issues'. Well, that was the line that was trotted out. Unless you'd been living in a bathysphere with a blind fold on and ear plugs in, you were probably aware that he was serving a six month ban for recreational drug use, although it was strenuously denied by the top brass. The PGA Tour, and to a lesser extent the European Tour, continue to plough on with their policy of secrecy and do not reveal punishments doled out to members. It remains a ludicrous approach and surely a new year's resolution must be more transparency from up high instead of this continual protection of the brand image where every incident is swept under the carpet. Talking of sweeping motions, the game's ban on the anchored putting method comes into force on January 1 2016. Some users, such as Keegan Bradley and Webb Simpson, have started moving away from the broom handle in preparation for the outlawing, but plenty of diehards, like Adam Scott and venerable veteran Bernhard Langer, remain, well, anchored to their anchors. There are still almost 12 months to go but it will hurtle by. This time next year, there will, no doubt, be players turning the air blue on the greens as the ban kicks in.

For now, though, we've got 2015 to get through. And there will be a wide variety of things to get through. Will the Scottish Golf Union and the Scottish Ladies Golfing Association finally shake hands on a long overdue agreement for amalgamation and stride forward as one? Can Europe's lady golfers claim an unprecedented third successive victory over the USA in the Solheim Cup? Will the powers-that-be adopt a tougher approach to slow play and dish out more penalty shots? And who will emerge as Scotland's standard bearer on the global stage?

In this predictably unpredictable game, it's hard to predict. You're safer sticking with smoking, drinking and bareback horse riding.

ENDS