Bill Elliott

So here we are in a new year, perhaps still a tad dishevelled following the self-inflicted rigours of a festive period that helped us to stick a defiant two fingers up at an unruly world too full of stuff that encourages despair. The problem with January is, well, almost everything. We're too far away from autumn and nowhere near enough to spring, never mind summer, to grasp anything other than reality, and facing the current reality is rougher than usual.

Never mind, we'll get through it and stumble into the vaguely reassuring light that is February while hoping that it is not, as Woody Allen once suggested, the light of an oncoming train. You remember trains, I hope.

For now, however, it is difficult to focus on golf, whether it is the pro game or our own slightly less impressive version. Some aficionados will scoff at this suggestion. For them, there is no time that is not an encouragement to get out there and thump a ball.

Fair enough, I doff my hat to them, but for those of us who find the prospect of playing a game in the wet and cold a challenge not worth contesting, there are better things to do at this time of year. One of these better things is thinking about golf and why you play, as well as how you play.