Every sane-minded golfer knows that the great game was invented by Cuchullain up there in the Cooley Mountains all those years ago. Then the Romans tried to claim it for themselves, along with the Dutch and, of course, those dreadful Scots, the most brazen copyists of all. Now, it emerges that the Finns also attempted to get in on the act.

Apparently it's not enough that Mikko Ilonen should have wiped the eyes of our brave lads by capturing the West of Ireland title at Enniscrone on Wednesday. Just think of it, in every club he visits, the bould Mikko will be able to boast that himself, Joe Carr and Cecil Ewing have 23 "West" titles between them.

Anyway, a popular story around golfing circles in Helsinki, concerns two young reindeer herders, Paarvi Tuulvitskoog and Olaaferinn "Ollie" Ruukinaanaluu, who took to batting around a frozen herring with a finely polished antler. The idea was to see which of them could slide the slippery kipper into a far-off, empty vodka bottle in the fewest strokes.

They called their game "paar en fisken", which means hit the fish. Or paar for short. And when the lads discovered that the Scots had been playing a similar game for some centuries past, they immediately sold their animals and moved to Glasgow where they became besotted with the Royal and Ancient pursuit.

The upshot of this episode was that paar, or golf as it soon became known, found a permanent and revered place in Finnish sports consciousness. And indeed led to the founding of the Helsinki Golf Club in 1932. A likely story, I hear you mutter.

Whatever the truth of these antler-waving antics, golf in Finland can have a very strange side to it. One of the most intriguing of its 90 courses is the Green Zone GC, located directly on the border with Sweden. The result is that roughly half the holes are in either country.

Clubhouse attendants are only too happy to supply visitors with stamped customs forms. Especially interesting, however, is the fact that the short sixth hole actually traverses the international boundary and time-zone. Which means that your four-ball could tee off in Finland at 12.50 p.m. and putt out in Sweden at noon.

Another obligatory stopping-off point for the golfing tourist to Finland is the charming, nine-hole Arctic Golf Club which, as the name suggests, is situated on the arctic circle.

Down in Enniscrone, Mikko Korhonen, an 18-year-old from Helsinki who lost to Garth McGimpsey in the first round, highlighted other fascinating aspects of Finnish golf. "In the middle of June, the light is good enough to play at midnight," he said. "It also makes it very easy to play 72 holes in one day, which I have done."

Maybe that's where our lads are slipping up.

Harry McKinney's friend was doing his best to ease the blow, after the European Club member had lost in the opening round of the West of Ireland last Monday. "And you qualified so well." "Yes, I shot 147." "Begob if you did that in snooker, you'd be getting thousands for it."

This week's reflections from Henry Longhurst, concern the problems he encountered during the infancy of radio broadcasting of golf. In his book My Life and Soft Times, published by Cassell in 1971, he outlined the BBC's elaborate plan for the semi-finals of the British Amateur at Hoylake in 1939. A major problem was to avoid the embarrassment of being heard by the players, leading to persistent cries of "Sshhhh" from silent spectators.

The solution for Longhurst and his crew was to set themselves up on a knoll, well out of the way but with a reasonable view of the distant play. He recalled: "It seems incredible today, but the signal for us to start was to be the lowering of a white handkerchief by an engineer perched on the roof of the Royal Liverpool clubhouse."

He went on: "The exact hour of the broadcast in those days had to be printed in advance, so there was no flexibility in time. The first semi-final came to us and passed, then came the second. At this point, the engineer raised the white handkerchief and we were under starter's orders. He lowered it briskly and we were off - whereupon the second match vanished from sight, leaving our little trio silent upon a knoll in Hoylake, unable to move since our range was only a mile.

"I state with confidence that I gave an absolutely splendid and dramatic eyewitness account of the play, understandably interspersed with a good deal of the `wish you were here . . . lovely view of the bay' sort of stuff, and I could not help feeling that not everyone could have waffled continuously or to such effect for 10 whole minutes about non-existent play.

"I thus returned to the clubhouse feeling that a congratulatory hand or two might well be extended. Instead, we met the engineer. He was most apologetic. `We had to fade you out after a minute or two,' he said, `on account of a technical hitch."'

Broadcasting will be somewhat different from the Deutsche Bank Open in Heidelberg on May 21st to 24th. That is when coverage of the European Tour begins on Talk Radio, following the signing of a three-year contract up to and including 2001.

Commentary on Britain's largest and only commercial, speech-based radio station, will be by Richard Kaufman and former European Tour member, Jeremy Bennett. The station's head of sport, Moz Dee, said: "Golf is the world's quickest growing sport and we want to be part of that growth."

Of course it's easy to predict the professional success of players from a specific Walker Cup team. Certainly, those who are incapable of matching strokes with their American amateur counterparts can have no real future in tournament golf. Or can they?

The victory by Scotland's Dean Robertson in the Italian Open last weekend, revived memories of a rather grim two days at Interlachen in 1993. That was when the youngest Walker Cup team from these islands were thrashed by a record 19-5 margin. And Robertson isn't the only one of those babes to have come good.

Padraig Harrington went on to win the Spanish Open as a professional in 1996, a month after Raymond Russell captured the Cannes Open. And a fourth member of the side, Van Phillips, won the Portuguese Open in March of this year. Then there was the performance of Stuart Cage, who lost a play-off to Sam Torrance for the 1995 Murphy's Irish Open at Mount Juliet.

Taking the other side of the coin, Gordon Sherry seemed guaranteed success as a professional, when he was tied fourth behind Wayne Riley in the Scottish Open at Carnoustie in 1995. And later that year, he was the hero of a memorable Walker Cup triumph at Royal Porthcawl.

Since turning professional, however, Sherry has disappeared from view. Down the same road Justin Rose seems to be headed. All of which emphasises just how difficult it is to predict how players will cope with the transition to paid ranks. And no fail-safe pointers are to be found in the Walker Cup.

US Ryder Cup skipper, Ben Crenshaw, believes the key to success at Brookline next September will lie in the ability of his players "to think as a team and a unit, instead of assembled individuals". When asked how this might be achieved, he thought for a moment before making the momentous disclosure: "Throw a barbecue."

This day in golf history . . . On May 8th, 1988, Juli Inkster gained a spectacular, $45,000 victory in the Crestar Classic at Sleepy Hollow GC in Virginia. It came at the first hole of a four-way play-off with Rosie Jones, Nancy Lopez and Betsy King, when Inkster hit a 220-yard four wood to within inches of the hole at the par five, for a tap-in eagle.

Inkster was then 27, having turned professional in 1983 after a brilliant amateur career highlighted by three successive US Women's Amateur victories, in 1980, 1981 and 1982. In the Curtis Cup in Denver in 1982, her four wins included the top foursomes on the opening day in which she partnered Carol Semple to the 5 and 4 defeat of Mary McKenna and Belle Robertson.

In Brief: Mary O'Gorman tells me that the annual Loughnane Sisters' Foursomes Trophy at Birr will be played on May 21st . . . And Elm Park stage their Open Mixed Foursomes match-play from June 6th to 12th.

Teaser: A player finds on the first green that he has no putter and is carrying only 13 clubs. He continues play but sends his caddie back to the clubhouse. The caddie fetches one of two putters which he finds and gives it to the player. May the player then tell the caddie to take it back and fetch the other one instead?

Answer: Yes, provided he did not play a stroke with any club when the first putter was in his possession.