Yes it’s nearly Burns Night again when we Scots celebrate the birthday of our national bard. It’s all about haggis, whisky, poetry, great conviviality and a time to toast his immortal memory and reflect upon the deep human legacy this one man left the world.

I took part in the St Andrews University Global Burns Night by performing my party-piece Tam O’Shanter and Val McDiarmid gave a wonderful talk and was very amusing and thought provoking. I must try one of her books. She does come across as most witty and decent.

All the other performances were excellent and there was a most intriguing piece by the American Burnsian, Dr William Zachs, about his 2025 discovery of Sir Henry Raeburn’s 200 year old lost portrait of Burns (now being exhibited in the National Gallery from Jan 26). It was most interesting and well presented. In fact the whole show was most professionally put together by the Development Team. Well done Robert, Hannah and the rest of the accomplished team.

I am back in St Andrews after a week skiing in Morzine where I stayed with my old pal Ricey (Ambroggio McLintock). He is converting an old farmhouse in St Jean d’Aulps and it’s all rather heavenly. He is midway through the building of the chalet and has completed the Bothy where I stayed, all with log-burning stove and stunning views up the valley. It really is Yeats’s Innisfree stuff. Nine bean rows , a hive for the honey bee and all that. So quiet, so unfettered and quite a tonic to the major resort town of Morzine which is not so.

Ricey is a real Burns man in the sense that he is self-made, not indisposed to the fairer sex, independent minded and has a huge joie de vivre. We worked back together 30 years ago as ski instructors and he now has one of the top-rated ski outfits in the Portes du Soleil with Ski Beyond which he runs with his wife. Pas mal.

We were both party animals back in the day, but he like me doesn’t really drink much at all now. I will admit to sharing a bottle of lovely Chateau Neuf du Pape with him over a steak one night. And it was very enjoyable. But what I found was that it was much more for the flavour and the way it complimented the food than in the old days. It really was a rum thing. Well a grape thing essentially.

Anyway I am back to wonderful St Andrews and looking forward to the forthcoming golf season and my tour-guiding work. I am feeling more fulfilled than ever and at 63 now, want to whack the next few years.

Do have a wee stab looking at the St Andrews University Global Burns Night and tell me what you think.

I did actually get an email from a lady in America during my performance who said she loved my Tam O’Shanter. This really got me. It was such a lovely thing for her to have done. I immediately emailed her back saying how she had made my night.

And she had.

It’s suddenly 2026. Next year I will be a Super Senior ! My goodness. What a shocker. It’s all going rather quick. My life.

Here we go though and let’s see what 2026 has in store with the gowf and my tours and my dealing with drink. On the latter front I am really chuffed as I’ve effectively had over 6 months off. That’s a record. I like not drinking but admit to sometimes being pretty nostalgic about dreamy Portuguese reds (the grape ones) It’s easier saying no though.

Thanks to Rory McIlroy I got a new Scotty Cameron putter which was cool. This goes back to a lovely Xmas dinner with my gowf pal Dave who suggested that my putting was dire and I should invest in a modern mallet putter. I then backed Rory to win BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award which he dutifully won (surely a no-brainer?) and then my lovely pro at Mortonhall, Fraser Dunlop, gave me a 20 per cent discount and after a simple £349 debit swipe I gained a Scotty. Some things are just meant to happen in life I suppose.

I have now made another historic change to the rich tapestry of the life of the Auld Toon here in St Andrews. In short I had a rather blunt and confrontational conversation about vaping to a bus driver who was blasting away in the station one morning. I pointed out that it was a no-vaping zone and he rather took-off on me and asked which bus I was getting, which I thought a bit strange as I didn’t see the connection between my bus journey and our dialogue about his vaping. But anyway, I got the manager out and complained rather vigorously and low and behold 2 weeks later we have richly emboldened and emblazoned No Smoking and Vaping signs all over the bus station. Hoorah.

So as well as getting Tennant’s Lager back in the Dunvegan, a protective safety fence on the driving range, hitting the very first ball in Tiger Woods’s new sports bar and getting my name onto the Luvians Grand Slam 2024 whisky bottle, my life work is largely done.

I will be being broadcast across the world on 22nd January when they put out the St Andrews University Global Burns Supper as I got asked to perform Tam O’Shanter. I am a bit concerned as to how it comes across but they seemed happy with it. On vera.

I will endeavour to post more this year and there are a few exciting developments which I’m sure you will be chomping at the bit to hear about.

All the best folks.