It will take more than a sair throat to stop Belle Robertson having a blether about the game she loves. “I’ve lost my voice,” she whispered down the phone.

Saying that, a gentle reminder that it’s now 45 years since this Belle of the dimpled ba’ game won the very first Helen Holm Scottish Open Strokeplay Championship back in 1973 probably cleared her thrapple better than a lozenge could.

“Gee whiz, is it 45 years?” she replied with a positively roaring response. “Don’t be turning that into 54 now.”

This weekend, the Helen Holm as it is simply and affectionately known, takes place as usual at Troon Portland and Royal Troon. With an international field of 120, it’s the largest line-up in the event’s history. The lure of the links remains as strong as ever.

“That was always the great attraction for the European players, an introduction to seaside golf,” said Robertson, who won the Helen Holm three times during a shimmering amateur career. “In many ways it still is. It’s the first big one of the year and it gets noticed.

“The tournament has gone from strength to strength. In my day, the highest handicap was perhaps eight. You’d get nowhere near the field with that now.”

Croaky throat aside, Robertson, the sprightly 82-year-old from Dunaverty on the Mull of Kintyre, remains as fit as a freshly buffed up fiddle while she keeps a close eye on affairs in the amateur scene.

This weekend’s contest will be the final event before the GB&I team for June’s Curtis Cup tussle with the USA is announced. Under the captaincy of Aberdeen’s Elaine Farquharson Black, GB&I will be looking to retain the prize won two years ago at Dun Laoghaire. History is not on their side, of course.

The one and only time GB&I have triumphed on US soil came in Robertson’s final playing appearance back in 1986. The news yesterday, meanwhile, that the hugely-talented Northern Irish player, Leona Maguire, has decided to turn professional in the coming weeks and will not be adding to her three Curtis Cup appearances has thrown something of a spanner into the GB&I works.

“That is a major blow,” observed Robertson, who represented GB&I as both a player and captain in a total of nine Curtis Cups down the seasons. “Leona is a very good player and she obviously feels ready to go.

“The timing is unfortunate for Elaine but she has proven that she’s a good, enthusiastic captain with a successful record. The Curtis Cup is still the pinnacle of the amateur game and I don’t think it’s lost any of its lustre. Maybe’s Leona’s decision will open the door for one of the Scots to get into the team?”

Among those Scots looking to seize the chance and impress the selectors this weekend will be Aboyne teenager, Shannon McWilliam.

Having finished second in the Helen Holm a year ago, the 18-year-old has plenty of reasons to feel optimistic as she looks to build on a strong start to the campaign which was burnished by a 54-hole strokeplay victory in South Africa back in February.

McWilliam, who will be aiming to become the first Scottish winner of the Helen Holm since Heather Stirling triumphed back in 2001, is well aware that she needs to put in another eye-catching performance on the Ayrshire coast if she is to barge her way into the Curtis Cup reckoning.

“My goal has always been to play for GB&I,” she said. “All I can do is give it my best go. If I don’t get selected then you get over it and keep going.”

The rigours of the championship links at Royal Troon await in the final round for those who make the Helen Holm cut. The myriad perils, including the dangers which abound at the devilish, par-3 eighth hole famously known as the Postage Stamp, demand caution and concentration at all times.

“I was lucky that I generally emerged unscathed but I remember poor Maureen Madill going from bunker to bunker and taking an eight on that hole,” recalled Robertson of the calamity visited upon the Irish golfer turned broadcaster. “I hope she doesn’t mind me mentioning that …”