Would you believe it

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.