Our nation boasts a far richer heritage than we often give it credit for. Some five years ago, I pointed out how many Scots in other sports were ranked above Andy (then 35th on the ATP list) and his mum thanked me! She said it would help keep his feet on the ground.
Andy is entitled to feel on top of the world today – his gold-medal winning performance against Roger Federer at London 2012 set the perfect scene for his latest quest to land a major, and his performance in New York was truly splendid. But the greatest ever? Not yet, methinks. That calls for more grand slam titles.
Scotland has two Formula One drivers with more than 50 victories between them, plus 12 world boxing champions.
Several Scots have won back-to-back Olympic titles, including the greatest British Olympian in a century. There are golfers who have won more majors than Murray has grand slams, iconic figures in fields of human endeavour from mountaineering to sailing, and sportsmen and women ranked as high as No.1 in the world – a position which Murray has yet to occupy.
We exclude team sport from the debate. Football legends such as Kenny Dalglish and Jim Baxter are not considered; nor are rugby's Gavin Hastings or Andy Irvine; Ashes-winning captain Douglas Jardine on the Bodyline tour; and Rhona Martin, whose "stone of destiny" won Olympic curling gold.
There's no doubt in my mind about Scotland's greatest ever sportsman: cyclist Sir Chris Hoy. The London Olympics provided myriad sporting triumphs, but Hoy's two golds added to the trio collected in Beijing and one from Athens – and let's not forget his string of world titles – took him one clear of Sir Steve Redgrave's record haul of five Olympic gold medals.
I'd give a measure of honourable mention to Stephen Hendry, but for a personal foible: How does a game one can play while smoking and drinking qualify as sport? But full measure of honour to extreme sportsmen such as mountaineer Dougal Haston, Chay Blyth, and Robin Knox-Johnson. None of that trio was in full-on competitive arenas in the manner of others above. Tell us what you think.
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1 Sir Chris Hoy
His golden treble in Beijing was Britain's greatest Olympic performance for 100 years, and came after the event which he had won four years earlier had been removed from the programme. Scotland's greatest sportsman, with a saddlebag of world titles, but on the bike there should also be consideration for Tour de France King of the Mountains Robert Millar and one-hour world record-breaker Graeme Obree - betrayed by the UCI because his engineering genius masked his athletic prowess.
2 Jim Clark
The Borderer was the dominant driver of his sadly-short era, winning two World Formula One championships. His death, at Hockenheim, came after 25 grand prix victories – then greater than any other driver. Afficionados of a certain age rate Clark ahead of Jackie Stewart who won three World titles, with 27 wins from 99 starts.
3 Ken Buchanan
The Edinburgh boxer tops my list of 12 Scottish world champions, just ahead of Jim Watt, who he beat for the British Lightweight title in 1973. Buchanan went abroad to take the world lightweight crown from the Puerto Rican, Ismael Laguna. He defended it in New York and South Africa, before losing on a low blow to Roberto Duran, among the greatest fighters ever. But consideration should be given to Benny Lynch, Jackie Paterson, and Walter McGowan among others.
4 Sandy Lyle
He won the 1985 Open and 1988 Masters – 18 European tour events and five in the US while spending 167 weeks in the world top-10. Yet perhaps not our greatest golfer. Willie Anderson, from North Berwick, won four US Opens in five years, and three in a row from 1903. In 12 years he was never out of the top five. He shares the record of four wins with Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus. He won the Western Open four times (then one of the existing two majors) and was first to hold both these US titles.
5 Shirley Roberton
Started on Linlithgow Loch and graduated to back-to-back Olympic gold in Sydney and Athens – Scotland's first double female champion.
6 David Wilkie
Olympic champion at 200 metres breaststroke. His time in Montreal (1976) was a world record for six years, and survived as the Scottish best for 25. He also held the world mark at 200m individual medley, was three-times world champion, and took European and Commonwealth golds.
7 Wyndham Halswelle
Killed by a sniper in the trenches of World War I, he was Scotland's first Olympic athletics champion (400m, 1908). He also won Olympic silver at 800m, and bronze at 200 – only UK athlete ever to medal at all three distances. And he remains the only British athlete to win medals of each colour without recourse to relays. He gets my verdict over Chariots of Fire hero Eric Liddell who also won Olympic 400m gold (Paris, 1924) yet never beat Halswelle's Scottish 440 yards record. It survived until 1956. Allan Wells, 100m champion in 1980, was first Scot to win Olympic athletics gold since Liddell.
8 Liz McColgan
Scotland's first world athletics champion (10,000m, 1991). She twice won Commonwealth Games gold at the same distance, set world records on the road and on the track indoors, and won major marathons in New York, London, and Tokyo, as well as Olympic and European medals.
9 Graham Randall
First Scot, and only the second British man to win a world judo title, at the highly competitive weight of 81 kilos. Defied the threat of paralysis to win Commonwealth gold in 2002, competing despite suffering from a broken bone in his neck. Became Scottish national coach and now works for sportscotland.
10 Dougal Haston
Put up a latticework of first routes . . . first Briton to climb Everest's south-west face, a member of the team that conquered the south face of Annapurna, the first ascent of Changabang, and the first ascent of the north-west face of the Eiger by the direct route. The Currie man was choked to death by his scarf in an avalanche in 1977, aged 36.
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