Golf and music often go hand in hand. This correspondent’s grim, ceaseless futility on the course, for instance, could easily be accompanied by the sombre, heart-wrenching pathos of Samuel Barber’s Adagio for Strings.

From Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra to Smokey Robinson, Alice Cooper, Lloyd Cole and Justin Timberlake, the Royal & Ancient game has always provided a soothing, tranquil retreat for those looking to savour a different kind of hit.

As for Aberdeen golfer and music student Jasmine Mackintosh? Well, a year ago at the Helen Holm Scottish Women’s Open Amateur Championship, she was the No 1.

Here in 2024, she’s hoping to be a chart topper again as she defends her title over 54-holes at Troon Portland and Royal Troon this weekend.

It’s been a busy spell for the 24-year-old. As well as getting her golf game in fine tune for a season of top-level competition in the unpaid ranks, Mackintosh has also been embroiled in the recording of her own songs as part of her music course at the North East Scotland College.

If she hits the high notes again at Troon this weekend and knocks off back-to-back wins, she may treat all and sundry to an unplugged concert at the prize giving ceremony?

“I’m releasing an EP soon and there will be five of my own songs on it,” she said. “As well as singing, I play guitar and drums … not all at the same time.

“As a little girl I loved singing, but I’ve also played golf since I was eight and I’ve just really enjoyed combining both.

“I’ve been very busy over the last month and it can be difficult balancing practice and college to make sure I don’t fall behind in my work. But music and golf are things I love, I’ve always enjoyed both and will continue to do so.”

The grandstands for July’s Open are being rattled and clattered up at Royal Troon as we speak.

Mackintosh certainly produced, well, a grandstand finish in last year’s Helen Holm as she reeled off a trio of back-nine birdies while title rival Lorna McClymont, who had been well in command, stumbled to the line. Mackintosh would eventually triumph in the sudden-death play-off.

That success, in the 50th anniversary of this cherished championship, was the second in a row by a Scot after Grace Crawford’s win in 2022. The last Scottish success before that was way back in 2002.

Mackintosh’s 2023 conquest, the biggest of her blossoming career, was a topsy-turvy affair which encapsulated all the ups-and-downs that are par for the course in this game of wildly fluctuating fortunes.

Leading after round one, Mackintosh then sagged to a second round 77 before conjuring a spirited rally on the final day to join a decorated roll of honour that includes the likes of Belle Robertson, Muriel Thomson, Catriona Matthew, Mel Reid, Leona Maguire and Linn Grant

“On the final day, I was able to play with a bit more freedom,” reflected Mackintosh as she cast aside that damaging 77 and rebooted her golfing system like someone thumping the Ctrl Al Del keys on a misfiring laptop.

“I stuck to my process, didn’t worry about what anyone else was doing and was much stronger mentally.”

Mackintosh enjoyed a bit of winter sunshine with a training trip to the Bahamas with a Scottish Golf squad. Since then, though, the Scot, like the rest of the nation’s scunnered golfing population, has been trying to muddle on through the seemingly unrelenting downpours.

“It’s been difficult to get out and practice recently as the weather in Aberdeen has been so awful,” she said of a grisly spell that has left courses around the country so wet, they’re actually starting to rust in the first cut of rough.

“It’s actually better to go on the course and play because standing on the range practising is not good in the pouring rain.”

The forecast for the weekend looks half decent, though, as Troon welcomes an international field of 118. Included in that number is the multiple US Women’s Mid-Amateur champion, Meghan Stasi, who will captain Team America in this year’s Curtis Cup at Sunningdale.

The English pair of Chloe Tarbard and Nellie Ong, fresh from finishing first and second respectively in last week’s Scottish Girls’ Open at Powfoot, will be looking for more success north of the border while Glasgow-based 12-year-old Sabrina Wong continues her golfing education with a robust Troon examination.