SPRING is my favourite time of the year, especially if it’s complemented by radiant sunshine and blue skies. From a sporting calendar prospective, I know it must be the start of the season when the US Masters Golf appears on our television screens.

What a superb sight is the National Augusta Golf Club in Georgia with its beautifully manicured fairways and greens; each hole – some with streams and ponds ­­– is set amid the glorious flora and fauna, with azaleas, flowering peach, yellow jasmine, Carolina cherry, firs and magnolia trees – many in bloom. It is, arguably, one of the game’s most magnificent settings.

My interest was fuelled by the cavalier golf of one of the game’s greats, Spaniard Seve Ballesteros, who in the early 1980s broke the American domination  of the tournament  from the likes of ‘true masters’ such as Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. Seve’s victories acted as a dam bursting for success from those this side of ‘the Pond’ with the likes of Germany’s Berhardt Langer, Spaniard Jose Maria Olazabal and a purple patch from 1988 to 1991 when Scot Sandy Lyle, England’s Nick Faldo and Welshman Ian Woosnam  earned the coveted ‘Green Jacket’, which is traditionally awarded to the winner.

Since then Tiger Woods, Bubba Watson, Ben Crenshaw, Jack Nicklaus (the oldest winner at aged 46) and Jordan Speith have restored American pride. and what a great story it was last year - when the victor was rank outsider, Yorkshireman Danny Willetts.

So bravo on Sunday to Spaniard Sergio Garcia, who shook off the strong challenge of Britain Justin Rose in an exciting, play-off to this year’s US Masters. I must admit I was ’rootin’ for the Englishman but was not too disappointed at the affable and sporting Garcia, who after 20 years, captured his first ‘major’.

However, there is only one thing that irks me about this glorious golfing festival. It is supposed to be an ‘invitation only tournament’. Now I know I’ve changed my email address recently, which probably has created an administration hiccup, but, alas, as yet, I’ve not received mine.

Personally I find this baffling – anybody who has seen my efforts at the Central Park municipal pitch and putt course in Plymouth over the past 40 years, would surely champion my inclusion.  Put it this way, it’s not that I’m a bad golfer, it’s just that I believe in value for money – the more shots the better!

I’m off to check my post — you never know!