Sitting with my baby boy the other day, in a shoogling, coochy-cooing moment of gentle reflection, I couldn’t help thinking that humans are actually born too soon.

In the animal kingdom, for instance, a gazelle can wobble, stumble and totter itself onto its feet within hours of being born. Not long after that, it can burst into a life-saving sprint at the first whiff of a lion lurking menacingly in the undergrowth and licking its chops.

As for we homo sapiens? Well, we can’t even burp without some kind of cajoling, back-patting assistance in the early stages. Funnily enough, the winding process is broadly equivalent to the methods the sports editor still employs to inveigle me into a winkling out of the Tuesday column. It’s a pitiful scene. Fortunately, there’s usually plenty to write about.

Stephen Gallacher’s win in the Hero Indian Open on Sunday, his fourth European Tour title and a first in five years, made it two Scottish victories on the circuit in the opening three months of 2019.

Take Florida resident Russell Knox out of the equation and it wasn’t that long ago that successes by home-based campaigners on the tour had dried up to such an extent the players were just about issued with their own hose pipe ban.

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Following David Law’s maiden tour conquest six weeks ago, though, the drought has become a veritable deluge in comparison to those relatively barren seasons.

Of course, winning on the tour – in fact winning at any level in professional golf – is a hellishly difficult task on a par with hewing an elaborate gargoyle out of limestone with a blunt BIC disposable razor.

When they come along we should hang out the bunting, particularly in these times when sporting success in the eyes of certain outlets is gauged by the fortunes of the country’s various fitba’ teams.

Nothing else matters, it seems, in the myopic views of those who can often be as blinkered as a cuddie in the starting gate.

Gallacher’s conquest in New Delhi on Sunday was quite the eye-opener, particularly given the fact that he racked up a crippling eight on the seventh hole of the final round. Not many players throw that kind of figure into the golfing equation and still get the numbers to add up to ultimate glory.

On a casual perusal, the wider numbers of Gallacher’s season made for the kind of uncomfortable reading you’d get when you opened a calculus exam paper.

In his first six events of the year, he had made just one cut, he had broken 70 just once and hadn’t finished higher than a share of 67th. In this game of countless variables and unpredictabilities, of course, you just never know what’s round the corner. Every week provides the opportunity for a fresh start and renewed hope. Events on both the European and PGA Tours at the weekend illustrated that.

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While Gallacher, 44, was winning in India, Graeme McDowell (inset), the former US Open champion, was ending his own barren run of four years without a victory by coming out on top in the Dominican Republic.

Without a top-10 finish anywhere since a share of fifth in last year’s Italian Open, McDowell, who will be 40 this July, thrust himself back into the spotlight with a timely triumph.

Both Gallacher and McDowell may have slipped out of the winning habit in recent years but those old habits tend to die hard.

Once they got a sniff of success, the sturdy mentality, the invaluable experience and the unwavering competitive instinct that tends to be a hallmark of champions came to the fore again.

Gallacher stepped up to the plate as the pressure mounted and birdied his last two holes. McDowell, meanwhile, conjured a cracking tee-shot on his penultimate hole to steal a march at the top. “I said to myself ‘you’ve got to do something that’s tournament winning’ and that shot to 17 was tournament winning level,” said the Northern Irishman of a tee-shot to six-feet which spawned a vital birdie.

Both McDowell and Gallacher produced the kind of decisive, grab-it-by-the-scruff-of-the-neck moments that not every player is capable of amid the cut-and-thrust.

Golfers are always looking for that something that can elevate their game to a new level. Whether it’s a tweak here, a new coach there or a technical overhaul everywhere, the quest for improvement can take various forms and is often such a complex, never-ending process it would make the search for the holy grail look like a quick squint on Google maps.

Gallacher had sought golfing wisdom in the US with Sean Foley, a former coach of Tiger Woods, but has recently gone back to the Scottish swing guru, Alan McCloskey, for a third time. The rewards have arrived swiftly.

In this global game, sometimes the answers lie on your own doorstep.