Time marches on. In some cases it feels like it’s trampling all over us.

The constant updating of gee-whiz gadgetry, for instance, can easily make the mobile phone you thought was high-tech a couple of years now look about as cutting edge as the hand-cranked mangle.

For Greig Hutcheon, keeping pace with advancements in gizmos and contraptions, as well as trying to cling to the coat tails of the young ‘uns on Paul Lawrie’s Tartan Pro Tour, is keeping the 48-year-old on his toes.

“It’s all on the App now,” said the well-kent Aberdonian. “We put our scores in, we get live leaderboards on our phones, we can get the pin placements. It’s all new and a sign of the times. It’ll be bad when I have my reading specs perched on the end of my nose trying to see what’s going on.”

Lawrie’s tour, a developmental circuit for male and female golfers in Scotland, is well underway and has already visited Montrose, Barassie and Royal Dornoch in the last couple of weeks. Muirfield, Carnoustie, The Renaissance and Royal Aberdeen are also on the list of forthcoming venues. “Paul has got some terrific courses on board,” added Hutcheon, who showed signs of his enduring qualities with a closing 65 at Barassie the other week.

“The tour is not really designed for people like me, it’s more for the kids coming through but I’m enjoying the competition. There are invitations to some European Challenge Tour events for the players leading Paul’s order of merit at certain points of the season. Getting these young lads moving forward is brilliant and hopefully the tour becomes a pathway to bigger things.”

Back in the late 1980s, Hutcheon and Lawrie were both serving their apprenticeships at Banchory. Lawrie was the assistant professional, Hutcheon was a young jack of all trades. “I was the Saturday boy,” he reflected. “I re-spiked shoes, I ran the tuck shop at the 11th hole. I was generally just the dog’s body around the pro shop. That was just me starting off. Paul used to give me a lift along the road.”

Lawrie’s golfing road would eventually take him all the way to Open Championship glory, multiple European Tour wins and two Ryder Cup appearances. Hutcheon’s own journey may not have reaped such stellar rewards but three Challenge Tour wins, a trio of Scottish PGA titles and numerous Tartan Tour order of merit crowns has been a decent return for this spirited competitor who has been a pro for three decades.

As he inches towards his half century, there are new targets to aim for. “I’ve certainly still got the hunger and I’ll definitely give the Senior Tour (now the Legends Tour) a whack next year,” added the former PGA Cup player. “I’ll be 49 then and can go to the qualifying school. It won’t be easy but it’s worth having a go at it.

“It would be like a fresh start. And you sometimes need a fresh start when you see these 20-somethings hit the ball. I remember I once had muscles like elastic.”

Those muscles, and the other cogs and pistons that keep a golfer clanking along, have suffered a bit in recent years. The aches and pains are par for the course.

“I had a left hip problem due to repetitive hitting but I got a new stretching exercise to do which alleviated that problem in days which was incredible,” he said of this medical marvel. “I also had a niggle with my shoulder. I was helping my mum, who had a tree cut down in her garden, and I was trying to get rid of the stump. Hours spent on a stump grinding machine came at a price. But I’ve been a lot more injury free recently and I’m still plugging away at it.”

The ravages and restrictions of the on-going pandemic hit the domestic professional scene hard last year but at least it gave Hutcheon the chance to add another string to his bow.

“The home schooling was interesting,” he said of this wide-spread parental palaver. “The two boys started off in the kitchen but they were distracting each other too much so one went upstairs and the other stayed downstairs. It ended up being Daddy yo-yo with me going up and down the all the time. There were good days and bad days. Just like the golf really.”