I know where I wish to visit next and which golf course I’d like to play.  Yes, it’s time to think of hitting the M6 and going north again to Scotland, this time to the Kingdom of Fife and Dumbarnie Links.

Dumbarnie Links, a handful of miles from St Andrews, near Leven, has been open for a whole 14 months so must surely qualify as the UK’s newest links course.  It looks like it’s been there for years and last week it played host to the Trust Golf Women’s Scottish Open. The television pictures really did paint a thousand words and it was certainly to the liking of 34-year old American Ryann O’Toole, who won for the first time in her professional career.  A co-sanctioned Ladies’ European Tour (LET) and Ladies’ Professional Golf Association (LPGA) event, it was O’Toole’s 228th start as an LPGA Tour player but the first time she had led after 54 holes and only the second time time she’d played in the final group in the final round.

We get accustomed to seeing a smiling face and tears of joy on a Sunday at the end of a tournament but very nearly all of these players have an interesting backstory.  Ryann’s first year on tour was 2011 when she was plucked from relative obscurity by Rosie Jones, the US Solheim Cup team captain, who awarded her one of her captain’s picks.  Even the Americans didn’t know this rookie.  It looked like they’d found a potential regular in the side when she played in four out of the five matches, recording two wins and two halves.  Her half in the singles cut deep however.  When bad weather led to a suspension of play the American was two up and two to go on Europe’s Caroline Hedwall.  When play resumed Europe won the closing two holes and halved that match, ultimately winning the trophy by the slenderest of margins.  It was a long time before we heard of Ryann O’Toole again.

The intervening years saw her lose her card, fight back and change coaches and it was when she started to work with the uber-talented Jorge Parada in 2014 that she felt she could turn things around.  Her final round of 64 on Sunday was as close to flawless as it is possible to be and despite admitting she’d been very nervous on the Saturday evening there was no trace of that the next day.  She even stopped to pat a spectating dog on her way to the 72nd tee.

A closing par and a cosy three-shot victory was achieved and then followed a winner’s speech as eloquent as her golf had been elegant.  The last decade, the hours spent practising, the grind, the constant travel were all worth it, she said, “for this moment”.

The instant she finished she FaceTimed her Mum, who had been nervously watching at home back in California.  I’m not sure Mother O’Toole was awfully impressed with a Scottish links, declaring that Ryann looked like she’d “been playing on the moon!”  Just wait, Mum, until you see Carnoustie!

Ah, Carnoustie – often considered the most ferocious, the most unforgiving of all major championship venues.  This week it’s the test that faces the women in the AIG Women’s Open, the last of the five majors in the annual female golf calendar.  Someone will have gone to bed two nights ago little realising they are about to follow in the footsteps of the greats.

Fair to say, it’s a pretty exclusive club, including Ben Hogan, who won in 1953, his only appearance in the Open, Gary Player who won in 1968 and in 1975 it was Tom Watson winning on his Open debut, beating Jack Newton in the 18-hole play-off. Almost a quarter of a century later, in 1999, Paul Lawrie realised every little Scottish boy’s dream, winning the greatest prize of all on home turf.  Padraig Harrington opened the floodgates to Irish major championship success with his extra holes win over Sergio Garcia in 2007 and in 2011 it was the incomparable Yani Tseng who stormed to victory, successfully defending her Women’s Open title procured the previous year at Royal Birkdale.  Finally, 2018 saw Francesco Molinari hold off Tiger Woods, amongst others, to etch his name on the oldest trophy in the world, the first Italian to do so.

Carnoustie is not for the faint-hearted and it is more than fitting that the best women players in the world get to tee it up at one of the most exacting venues.  It gives credibility to the women’s game and it gives a fitting stage to these athletes.  Cool, drizzly weather with a bit of a breeze is the forecast – foreign conditions indeed for many of the LPGA players accustomed to following the sun.

And for anxious Mums watching on from California it might just look exactly like the players are on the moon.

Well, chalk one up for the oldies!  What an amazing win of Phil Mickelson’s at Kiawah Island’s Ocean course!

If you’re at a loss as to what I’m talking about you need to get out more.  Phil Mickelson won his sixth major and his second US PGA Championship at the weekend, thus becoming the oldest man to hoist one of the major trophies.  He’s a handful of days away from his 51st birthday but he triumphed over a field of world-class players many of whom are half his age.

I have to confess I didn’t think he’d do it – I suspected he would falter and be run over by legions of players passing him as his normal, all-out-attack game started to explore the outer reaches of Pete Dye’s daunting creation.  Not a bit of it!  This was uber-cool Phil, hidden away behind the dark shades and dressed daily in mostly dark colours like a gunslinger in the wild west.

He hadn’t been in contention in a major since that phenomenal 2016 Open Championship shoot-out with Henrik Stenson which the latter won for his finest moment in the game.  Five years removed from that kind of pressure is a long time in sport and, familiar though it may be, it isn’t a given you can conjure up the resilience of your younger self and produce your best under the most exacting conditions.

But Phil had trained himself for this moment.  In the last few years he has worked harder physically so as to be able to practise longer.  He identified and dealt with the problem of a lack of focus by taking up meditation and playing more holes – often 36 and sometimes 45 – to help improve his ability to concentrate and think clearly over a longer period of time.  Being physically and mentally sharper helped him deal with everything a major throws at you and although he was always recognisable as the Mickelson we’ve known for years there was an added dimension to him last week as well.

Even a last-minute glitch on Sunday didn’t derail him.  With his last full shot on the practice range he cracked the face of his much-loved 1-iron and Tim had to scurry off to put a replacement in the bag, a 4-wood, a club he hadn’t used all week.  That would have unsettled most players but Phil never faltered.

He maintained his composure; he was never flustered; the rhythm of his golf swing was exceptional; his walk was measured and unhurried even when he was threatened with being overrun by a tsunami of adoring fans down the last fairway; he was fully in control of all the controllables – his emotions, his thinking, his choices, his decisions.  That is the epitome of being on top of your game.  Mastery of these skills allowed him to access his best physical and technical performance and in this instance that was good enough to see off the opposition.

Over the years I’ve had ample opportunity to walk with Mickelson, commentate on his golf and interview him afterwards.  When I first started working in the States some 15 years ago, he wasn’t a particular favourite of mine – too cheesy, I thought.  A little too superficial, perhaps.

It didn’t take long for my ill-judged and preconceived notions to be blown out of the water.  Phil was consistent in his behaviour time after time.  Whenever he came to do his media work, he would accord each question due consideration and answer to the best of his ability.  If he had messed up the final few holes of a round and lost his cool, he would send Jim “Bones” McKay, his caddy, out from the recorder’s office for a sandwich and he’d remain in there having his lunch and waiting till he’d regained his cool.  Only then would he come out to do interviews and answer the questions of the media.

It was a very professional approach and he managed it marvellously for the majority of his career.

Where he really excelled, however, was with his interaction with the fans and the hours he spent each week signing autographs, for youngsters in particular.  I witnessed it time after time, tucked away out of view of the television cameras – there would be Phil and a long line of kids and Phil stayed there till there was no longer a line.  He has no equal in this regard and for me it was all the more impressive that it was done quietly, far away from the public’s gaze.  He even learned to sign his name in Chinese to satisfy the demand for his signature when he plays out there.

For me, however, one of his trump cards this week was the dark glasses.  For years Phil has been the consummate entertainer, connecting and interacting with the fans and too often we have seen his emotional barometer react and sync itself to the up-and-down responses and emotional rollercoaster of his fans.  Not this time.  Sure, he reacted to them, acknowledging their applause with his slightly goofy grin and trademark thumbs-up gesture, but this time he kept them at arm’s length mentally, not identifying with them.  He wasn’t influenced by them nor deflected from his supreme focus on the task at hand.  On this occasion this cool remove and isolation from the emotion around him was hidden behind the shades, yet his fans still felt included in their man’s tilt at history.

It was clinical mastery of achieving top sporting performance and a joy to witness.

So, now, even before the dust has time to settle, the inevitable questions have started.  Can he win the US Open at Torrey Pines next month, the one major still to elude him?  That would make him only the sixth player to achieve the Career Grand Slam.  How many more majors can he add to his tally of six?

Well, I, for one, refuse to get caught up in what may or may not happen.  I prefer to sit back, ponder and enjoy having witnessed an historic, wonderful and inspiring golfing performance by a very special player.  It was reputed he was offered $100 million by the Saudis to join the alternative golf tour they are attempting to set up.  The price has just gone up.

Experiencing frosts, hail and copious rain here in the UK made it all the more heart-warming to witness last week’s golf from North Carolina and Florida.  Not only did we get to enjoy the sight of sundrenched courses, we were also able to get wrapped up in Rory’s first win for eighteen months as well as in the high drama of the 48th Walker Cup at oh-so-scary Seminole.

Let’s start with the Walker Cup – or Walkover Cup – as some rather unkind journalists dubbed it.  The GB&I team, so ably captained by Stuart Wilson, was not given much of a prayer by many commentators, but no one seemed to have told the away team that they weren’t supposed to be able to contend with the powerful, high-ranked American side.  With both teams ravaged by sickness and reserves having to be called into play, this became a war of attrition for the contestants in what will surely be remembered as the most physically and mentally demanding match in the series.

Seminole in its awful loveliness was a PhD of an examination paper with absolute precision required to hit and hold putting surfaces reputed to be running at 14 on the stimp.  At least at Augusta National you can often hold the heavily sectioned greens – you just won’t be that near the pin; but at Seminole you could be swept away into a treacherous bunker from which, sometimes, there was no escape.  It was riveting stuff and mentally challenging as a viewer, never mind a player.  It was awe-inspiring to see these amateur players cope with all that was thrown at them and the 14-12 scoreline in favour of the US side was indicative of just how good a tussle it was.

It was also refreshing to have a high level match that is definitely a sprint and not a marathon, as the rest of the top events tend to be and the pace of play, particularly from the players from this side of the Atlantic, was a joy.  I suppose it was unfortunate that the very first shot I saw of the whole contest was a poor bunker shot by an American player.  His reaction was to spit on the ground, hence he was referred to in this household from that point on as “the spitter”.  Ah well, I suppose if the No 1 ranked player in the world is unchecked in that behaviour we must expect others to follow suit.  I wish they wouldn’t though.

A little further north on the US eastern seaboard is the lovely and challenging Quail Hollow golf course in Charlotte, North Carolina, an opinion obviously shared by Rory McIlroy who notched up his third victory there on Sunday.  He loves the place but what he learned was that he loves, and needs, the noise and vibe of the spectators more than he realised.  Expect his post-pandemic performances to be much improved.

“I thought I’d like the peace and quiet when we returned but I missed the crowds,” he said. “I feed off the energy so much. I’m certainly glad that the crowds were back and I’m glad that I was able to get the job done in an atmosphere like that today. And I’m excited going forward now that we get to play in front of crowds like that. It was just an awesome experience to feel that again over the weekend.”

Pete Cowen, with whom Rory is now working, has made an immediate impact, encouraging a change of shot shape off the tee from a draw to a power fade.  It’ll take a while to bed down but validation of the work they are doing together will be a tremendous tonic for the Irishman and his trademark jaunty step is back out there on display for all to see.  Nice timing with three majors coming up in the next eight weeks or so.

News comes that the first of those majors, the PGA Championship, which is played over Kiawah Island’s Ocean Course and where Rory notched up one of his four major victories, will be a stern test of 7876 yards.  That is the longest course in major championship history and it makes me wonder where it’ll all end.  Seemingly the major defence against equipment that allows players in their 70s like Tom Watson to continue hitting the ball as far as when in his prime is to build greens with an abundance of sections and slopes and then shave them to within an inch of their lives.  That sort of approach necessitates skill in two departments alone – sheer brute force for driving and silky skills around the green.  We are in danger of completely losing the nuances of shot-making through the bag.  Varying trajectories, shaping the ball, half and three quarter shots are all in the endangered species category nowadays and the game is not improved because of it.  Somebody, please DO something!

It looks like my sorties to the US for the men’s majors are a non-starter for the second consecutive year but hope springs eternal that the Ryder Cup may signal a return of normal duties.  We shall see, but in the meantime I’m happy to unashamedly cheer my favourites on from the sidelines without the slightest responsibility to impartiality.  Good to know that some clouds do have a silver lining.

There’s nothing quite like witnessing a person’s life change for the better.  It’s uplifting, emotional and leaves you with the feeling that perhaps the world isn’t such a bad place after all when wonderful things can happen to wonderful people.  It certainly beats the unrelenting diet of dreadful global news that would make a saint despair.

Last Sunday a dream came true for Sophia Popov as she held off everyone and everything (including her own doubts and questions) in the final round of the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon.  She is the first women’s major winner of this strange 2020 season; the first German woman to become a major champion; the third German player (after Bernhard Langer and Martin Kaymer) to hoist a major trophy.

Nothing has come easily to the 27-year old American-born German.  Turning pro in 2014 she gained her LPGA card for the following year but was soon struggling with a myriad of health issues, lacking energy and stamina and losing 25 pounds in the process.  It took almost three years and a great deal of her own research to arrive, finally, at the diagnosis of Lyme’s disease.  Strict attention to her diet and fitness has helped her regain her strength and control of her life but it seemed as if playing on one of the major tours might well elude her.  She played on a number of mini tours but suffered a huge disappointment as recently as last year when she missed out on her LPGA tour card by one stroke at the Q-series.

She almost gave up but family and friends persuaded her to keep going and with commendable resilience she turned her attentions to the Symetra Tour for 2020, judging this main feeder tour to the LPGA as her best opportunity to get back to where she felt she belonged.

And then Covid happened.  And the Symetra Tour, like almost all sporting organisations, closed down.  And we were in to lockdown.

I think at this stage, if it had been me, I might have thought the universe was trying to tell me something.  But Sophia Popov, thankfully, isn’t me, and I, unfortunately, am not her, which is why I’m sitting here blogging and she, I hope, is with all her loved ones in Heidelberg (or her American home in Arizona) having a riotous, week-long party to rival that of Shane Lowry.

During the lockdown period there was one small tour that kept its doors open and kept giving players the opportunity to compete – the Arizona-based Cactus Tour.  Several of the LPGA players availed themselves of the chance to try and retain a little bit of sharpness in their games and it was against this backdrop that Sophia recorded her first professional victory of any sort – and she didn’t stop at one win either!  In a little under four months she had three wins and a host of other high finishes.

Popov exited lockdown and turned up at the first tournament on the new, revised LPGA schedule in Toledo, Ohio, not as a player but as a caddy for her great friend and European Solheim Cup star, Anne Van Dam.  Assessing the course and risks with a caddy’s eye, as opposed to that of a player, really helped her with her course strategy, she said.  She realised that often her aggressive attitude was a little gung-ho and that playing the percentages may serve her better.  What a lesson to learn a month before a Women’s Open!

At this point fate intervened to provide a rare helping hand.  So many overseas players did not travel to the States for the resumption of the tour that a spot opened up for Sophia in the Marathon LPGA Classic, so this time she was inside the bubble as a player, not a caddy.  A top-ten finish, her first ever in an LPGA event, earned her a cheque for a little over $27,000, her biggest-ever payday but more importantly she secured exemption into the field at Royal Troon two weeks later.  Then she made what seemed to some a strange decision:  she elected to stay in the States to play in a Symetra Tour event instead of going over to Scotland in plenty of time to prepare for the first major of the year.  She admitted she was utterly focused on the Symetra Tour and achieving a top-five ranking at the year’s end to regain her LPGA tour card. The AIG Women’s Open was a “bonus event” for her.

As it happened, a second-place finish, which meant another week at the sharp end of a tournament and a late arrival at Troon, with time for only one practice round added up to her own personal recipe for success.

It just goes to show that winning and being in the mix at any level is a great habit to acquire.  It armoured Sophia to deal with holding a 54-hole lead in a major for the first time in her life;  it gave her the confidence to play down the stretch like a seasoned veteran; and it gave her the courage to seize this stupendous opportunity with both hands.

Sophia’s bank manager will be very happy.  Her winner’s cheque of $675,000 is six times more than she has banked in the whole of her career but the “add-ons” are exceptional, not least membership of the LPGA Tour and unlimited choice for the next few years to play wherever she wants.  The winnings are great but the benefits are priceless.

At this point it’s worth a nod to the inimitable Dame Laura Davies who was so entertaining with her commentary throughout the week.  Laura was not a member of the LPGA tour when she won the US Women’s Open in 1987 and there was no provision for major winners to be offered automatic membership of the tour.  This caused the LPGA a bit of a headache as they certainly did not want the winner of their national Open potentially having to attend the end of season qualifying school.  I seem to remember that Laura had said she would not be going to the Q-school so it was over to the tour to make the next move.  They took their time but the rule was born that stated any major champion not already an LPGA member would be offered membership accordingly.  So many over the years have benefited from this “Davies rule” and Sophia Popov is a welcome addition to that list.

Finally, you will have noted, no doubt, that Sophia has dual citizenship – of Germany and America.  I was heartened to see a German flag opposite her name in the US tournament lists as I’d love to see her in the next Solheim Cup – wearing yellow and blue, of course.