Golden oldie Lyle hunting silver lining

“It doesn’t get any easier, put it that way,” he said of this rewarding yet maddening pursuit. “I think you work on a few things and you grab hold of a few ideas. I am hitting the ball fairly solidly at the moment. My scoring just doesn’t reflect the way I am hitting it.

“It’s a nice thing having your own practice ground. I just look out the kitchen window, make sure there’s no more s**t weather coming from Loch Lomond and go and batter balls.

“I enjoy doing that and the dogs have a run up and down, picking the balls up, so they get some exercise at the same time.”

As Lyle prepares for an assault on the Scottish title, the recent death of his former Ryder Cup team-mate, Gordon Brand Jnr, has cast a sombre shadow over the tight-knit senior circuit.

“The wife said to me in the morning that he had died and I said, ‘what?’,” reflected Lyle. “It just hit you like that. It seems he’d just had a week of not feeling good.

“It shows you that we need to keep in check with our health, no matter what it is. Even though you might feel alright, you need to be careful.

“I had a medical about three months ago. They do heart echo sounds, blood tests, all that kind of thing, and it looked pretty good.

“I’ve had the odd medical check over the years in the US or the odd one for insurance purposes, but this one was a good screening.

“On my side of the family there is a heart issue so I was pleased that the echo sound was pretty good. My blood pressure is not great ... but that’s just golf.”

I’d love to have a cup to lift above my shoulders. I don’t mind if it is this week or even a nine-hole tournament. Just a win would be very nice