Did you remember to change your clocks at the weekend? No? Well, it doesn’t really matter if you did or not because smart alec bits of technology do all these fiddly little tasks for you anyway as your various gizmos and gadgets continue their menacing march towards rendering you redundant.
Before this scribe had even registered that those hands of time had birled back an hour, for instance, a smug little message popped up on my laptop informing me that “windows has automatically changed your clock”, as if to hammer home the point that my sneering computer thinks I’m just a doddering, incompetent nincompoop.
It’s becoming increasingly hard to think of a single human function that technology hasn’t somehow commandeered, apart from, say, resigned sighing.
And I’m pretty sure “The Resigned Sighing USB adapter 200” is available to buy online to save you the bother of making audible expressions of timorous, surrendering acceptance as you are ordered to vacate the family home by bloomin’ Alexa. The end is nigh.
On the European Tour, meanwhile, the end of the regular season has been reached. While those players in the upper echelons will get to feast on a cash-sodden menu of events over the next month that are so rich they could bring on gout, others will be closing down or girding their loins for the grim battleground of the qualifying school. So, how did the Scots fare?
Robert MacIntyre: current ranking No.7
The praise for the Oban left-hander has arrived in such abundant torrents, the Met Office has just about had to give him flood prevention advice. MacIntyre’s tremendous rookie season is far from over and he lines up in the WGC HSBC Champions event this week before heading for big-money bonanzas in Turkey, South Africa and Dubai.
It’s been a year of new experiences but the 23-year-old has taken them all in his canny stride. In barely two years as a pro, MacIntyre has achieved things – three second places on tour and a sixth at The Open – that countless players never get close to savouring in their entire careers. He has set a very high standard.
Richie Ramsay: No.58
Rather like an autumn crocus, Ramsay bloomed later in the year and a sixth at the BMW PGA, a 10th in the Dunhill Links and a fifth at the French Open propelled him into the top 60 on the rankings and elongated his season.
At times, Ramsay can offer up such deep self-analysis, he resembles Rodin’s The Thinker weighing up a yardage but his hard-working, determined approach remains admirable and he continues to give his all.
Scott Jamieson: No.74
A steady, if unspectacular season was given a solid platform by a couple of top-10s early in the year.
Never in danger of being involved in another scrap for tour survival, the 2020 campaign will mark the Glasgow man’s 10th successive season at the top table. That in itself is a fine achievement in a fiercely competitive environment.
David Drysdale: No.84
Drysdale remains such a sturdy mainstay, he’ll soon be available in the perennials aisle at Dobbies Garden Centre. Without a top-20 since February, Drysdale’s strong start – two fifths and a second
– ensured he will have full playing rights on the tour for a 15th straight year. Plenty of golfers would love to be in his shoes.
Stephen Gallacher: No.87
Given that he hadn’t finished higher than 67th prior to his win in the Indian Open, that success in Delhi was quite the bolt from the blue. Gallacher wouldn’t finish higher than 25th after that. A strange year for the Scot. But any year in which you win is a good ’un.
David Law: No.89 (main picture)
Like Gallacher, tour rookie Law won a title – the Vic Open – yet struggled to make any more headlines. That he didn’t kick on will be a source of frustration for the talented Aberdonian but he safeguarded his tour card – the most important job for any new recruit – and he proved that he can be a winner. He would have taken that at the start of 2019.
Grant Forrest: No.91
One of four Scottish graduates from the Challenge Tour, Forrest had his card wrapped up by the summer thanks to a couple of early top-10s and two solid showings in the Irish and Scottish Opens. A quiet achiever but one more than capable of making bigger noises.
Liam Johnston: No.148
By his own admission, Johnston can be as streaky as a packet of bacon rashers. During his successful promotion push on the Challenge Tour in 2018, for instance, he won, then missed eight of his next 11 cuts before winning again.
The pattern of early exits continued on the main tour – 18 in 30 events – but the big results he needed to offset those did not come. Just two years ago, Johnston was starting out on the third tier of pro golf. He’s learned quickly but the main tour, in 2019 at least, proved a step too far.
Marc Warren: No.215
A grisly year of grim statistics that were about as upbeat as reading a row of tombstones.
This was Warren’s lowest ever finish as a full tour member while numbers like his stroke average, driving accuracy and greens in regulation were all the worst of his career. Lifting himself for the Q-school will just about require industrial machinery.
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