Nursery for Norman wannabees

OLD hands view it as a cyclical occurrence a natural turnover of talent. But for Tommy Tolles, one of the gifted young players who has burst onto the USPGA Tour scene this season, his success owes much to the splendid initiative of a 28 year old Dubliner who is also a former member of Killiney GC.

From modest beginnings five years ago, Dara O'Neill has developed the PowerBilt Tour which now offers prize money of $1.5 million in a total of 41 events this season. Based in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, it is one of the mini tours which have become key nurseries for future tournament stars.

"You may not be playing against Greg Norman on the PowerBilt Tour, but you're playing against the future Greg Normans," said Tolles, whose second place finishes in the Doral Open and the Players' Championship in March, contributed to tour earnings of $531,171 so far this season. And he was speaking from the experience of a PowerBilt Tour victory in 1994.

The idea of forming the tour came to O'Neill when, shortly after his arrival in the US, he looked for competition that might prepare him for the USPGA Tour. To earn some money, he took an assistant professional's job at Sea Trail GC in Sunset Beach and within 18 months had taken the first, faltering steps towards realising his target.

Without sponsorship and with only his wife Debbie to help, he sought out suitable courses in the Myrtle Beach area. "People are coming to realise that there is a very fine line between making it on the PGA Tour and playing in our events," he said. "In fact as Tommy Tolles has proved our competitors represent the future of the US tournament scene.

O'Neill's younger brother Robbie is now one of four full time employees on a tour which offers places for 150 competitors each week, some of them from as far away as Europe and Japan. For an average entry fee of $350 per event, the tour provides practice time and green fees and arranges accommodation at local hotels.

Further expansion this year will see the staging of a $250,000' National Open Championship in October, with a top prize of $50,000. Exemptions will go to players outside the top 125 on the USPGA Tour and inside the top 25 on the Nike Tour. "When I look back at the times I had no money in the bank and little chance of getting any, our success is extremely gratifying," he said.

From modest beginnings as an assistant to Leonard Owens at Royal Dublin and later to Hugh Jackson at Donabate, O'Neill is fast becoming a highly influential figure in the world's largest professional arena.

THEY'RE an unlikely pair Padraig Harrington and his grizzled caddie, John O'Reilly. Indeed O'Reilly's partnership with the clean cut, earnest young man, becomes all the more intriguing when one considers some of the more colourful escapades from his 20 bag carrying years on the circuit.

Elsewhere in this newspaper I referred recently to O'Reilly's celebrated journey through East Germany, sans visa and zipped by fellow caddies into a golf bag cover on the luggage rack of a train. That particular tournament was in Berlin, from where O'Reilly made an equally interesting departure.

"I was asked to drive the PGA bus, which had about 18 other caddies on board," he recalled. "We were headed for the Swiss Open at Cranssur Sierre when l took a wrong turning and finished in an East German police station. After some time there, a US official arrived on the scene and got things sorted out.

"In fact they put a local train driver on the bus to guide us back onto the motorway. We gave him six bottles of Guinness and six porno books for his trouble and he was happy as Larry. Then I headed for Crans, which is up the side of a mountain and to make matters worse, it was lashing rain.

"When we eventually got there, I parked the bus behind one of the greens. But after we got out of it with our gear, it began to slip in the mud and ploughed right into the green. At that stage, I thought it best to make myself scarce and I was a lair bit away when I saw a crane lifting the bus off the green." The 55 year old Dubliner concluded. "They haven't asked me to drive any buses since."

WHEN David Graham was 16, he announced to his father that he would like to drop out of school to take up a career as a professional golfer. His father warned. "If you do, I'll never talk to you again." He held to his threat they never exchanged another word.

Years later, when the older Graham died, it was months before his son heard about it. "Most definitely it made me more determined," he said, while contemplating his 50th birthday next Thursday. "I went on a personal mission to prove to him and some others, that I could make it in golf."

After Graham captured the US Open at Merion in 1981, some wicked wag suggested that he had eventually become as good as he thought he was. Now, though inactive for five years, he is set to prove himself all over again on the US Seniors' Tour, starting in the BellSouth Senior Classic in Nashville next Friday.

Irish Open enthusiasts will remember Graham s appearance at Portmarnock in 1977 when he shot rounds of 75 and 76 to miss the cut. And they will recall that in 1981, two months after winning the US Open, he returned to Portmarnock, this time playing all four rounds for an aggregate of 284 and 11th place behind Sam Torrance. "I felt I owed it to the sponsors," he said at the time.

Graham has always been his own man. Which explains why, on being asked as a long time friend of Jack Nicklaus what he thought of Muirfield Village, he replied. "It looks like they copied a bunch of holes from other courses." Now, with sadness in his voice, he says. "That comment was devastating to my relationship with Jack." But, typically, there was no apology. Graham, beaten 69 74 by Ronan Rafferty in the final of the 1988 Dunhill Cup, remains one of a kind.

IN 1929, the magazine Irish Golf reported that. "New Ross has had disappointments in recent years in the way of golf, but the inhabitants have not sat down under them. It is excellent news that a new club has been formed with a strong committee. A new site for a course has been chosen.

In the way that Sutton will always be associated with Joe Carr, New Ross is inextricably linked to its finest player, Martin O'Brien, who captured the Irish Close Championship in 1968 and 1975. That was when the club had the same, modest, nine hole stretch at Tinneranny, the "new site" referred to in Irish Golf.

Through a total investment of £600,000, however, New Ross can now boast a splendid 18 hole layout for its membership of almost 800. It was officially opened last Sunday by Sean Doyle, who joined the club 60 years ago and likes nothing better, in retirement, than doing landscape paintings of the extended course.

IN BRIEF: Joe O'Keeffe informs me that the United Arts Club will be staging their first Golf Classic at St Anne's GC on May 30th. Further information from (01) 832 3353 .... The Paul Conaty Memorial Tournament, in aid of Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, will be held at Clontarf GC on July 5th. Further information from (01) 445 8455 The Tanaiste, Dick Spring, will officially open the splendid Ballyheigue Castle GC at 3.0 this afternoon. Details were announced this week of the Gardner Merchant Gerry Kelly Celebrity Charity Classic to be held at Hermitage on June 10th. Tracey Nicol has further information at (01) 668 3119 ... The admirably ambitious Roscommon GC are to open their newly Extended 18 hole course next weekend. After some spirited competition, the Norwich Union sponsored McCrea Cup reaches its climax at Dun Laoghaire GC today.

TEASER: A and B are playing C and D in a fourball match. It is B's turn to play and C is attending the flagstick at B's request. A, whose ball is in a deep bunker in such position that he cannot see C, plays out of turn and his ball strikes C. What is the ruling?

ANSWER: B authorised C to attend the flagstick which is the equivalent of A having authorised attendance of the flagstick. The definition of "Partner" provides that in a fourball match, where the context so admits, the word "player" includes his partner. Accordingly, A is disqualified for the hole (Rule 17 3b), but the penalty does not apply to B (Rule 30 3f).