What a year it’s been for Perthshire sport.
First Andy Murray wins Wimbledon, then I’d like to think I did my bit by winning an Olympic medal, St Johnstone win the Scottish Cup and now Bradley Neil has won the British Amateur golf championship.
What’s next? Eilidh Child or Laura Muir winning gold at Glasgow, maybe.
I was in Dublin at the weekend and I started to see a lot on Twitter about Bradley at Portrush. So I was able to follow how he was getting on in the final.
When I was playing team golf for Perth and Kinross I played a game with Bradley.
I haven’t seen him since but his game has obviously kept improving and from reading what he’s had to say and seeing him on TV he carries himself well off the course.
It’s hard to think of another sporting event where one win at amateur level can open up so many opportunities.
From playing competitions in front of one man and his dog, Bradley will now be rubbing shoulders with the best golfers in the world at The Open, The Masters and the US Open.
It’s like the best card you can pick up on Monopoly.
But it’s not as if Bradley has been lucky. He’s taken his chance. All the players knew what was at stake and he’s the one who got the job done. These are the moments you have to grasp.
Now he will be faced with one of the biggest dilemmas in golf when to turn pro.
The safe thing to do would be to take up all the invites that he can get as British Amateur champion and then give it a go.
But I think he would be best advised to keep an open mind.
Say for example he does really well at Hoylake, which is possible. You just have to look at the number of amateurs who have done really well at The Open over the years. Justin Rose, Lloyd Saltman and Tom Lewis all spring to mind.
If Bradley has a great Open next month there would be big financial rewards for him there and then, as well as invites to big tournaments that could help him get his tour card. And he would have to consider them.
The same would be true after Augusta, if he had a good Masters.
By all means have an idea in your head that you’re going to play all three majors that you’ve been invited to, but be ready to change the script if opportunity knocks.
* I’ve written a couple of times before in the column that I think Tiger Woods will struggle to win another major, let alone get past the record of Jack Nicklaus.
But there’s no doubting his status in golf, and the sport has definitely missed him while he’s been away.
He’s brought the sponsors and crowds in, and there’s nobody out there who will be able to fill his shoes when he goes (which could be any time if his body doesn’t hold up).
A lot of the responsibility to be the new face of golf has been heaped on Rory McIlroy but he doesn’t have the consistency to stay at the top for as long, and rack up as many majors.
So there are definite long term worries for golf’s governing bodies, but for the moment, let’s just look forward to another open with Tiger in it hopefully.