Bear accepts Olympic challenge

It feels good this morning to be reporting on a golfing world restored to sanity. There hardly seems a more appropriate way of describing this week's decision by the USGA to extend invitations to Jack Nicklaus to compete in the next three US Opens - at the Olympic Club in June, at Pinehurst next year and at Pebble Beach in the year 2000.

With no word forthcoming from their New Jersey headquarters two months ago, it appeared as if the great man's remarkable sequence of 145 "major" appearances might be at an end after Augusta next month. Now, the sequence can be extended to 157, should he decide to compete in the 2001 US Masters.

They revere their heroes at Augusta National. Which explains the decision to make April 7th of this year Jack Nicklaus Day at the Masters. By way of marking his 40th appearance in the event, the club are arranging a special ceremony in front of the clubhouse that evening, in his honour.

Meanwhile, the Bear's response to the belated US Open invitations was typically dignified. "I am flattered that the USGA think I can make a contribution to the Open through the year 2000," he said. "So I called Trey Holland (vice-president) of the USGA and accepted their invitation to compete."

He didn't say whether he would play in the following two US Opens, or whether he will compete in the British Open at Royal Birkdale in July or the USPGA Championship at Sahalee CC a month later. But where these events are concerned, at least he has known for some time that the choice was there.

As a Masters champion - he actually won it a record six times - Nicklaus has a lifetime exemption at Augusta. The USPGA accorded him the same distinction for their championship and he can play in the British Open until he is 65. In that context, it will be recalled that two months before his 66th birthday, Arnold Palmer bade a tearful fairwell at St Andrews in 1995.

It hardly seems too much to expect the same concession from the USGA, given that Nicklaus made his debut in the US Open as a 17-year-old in 1957 and has played in them all since then, winning on a record-equalling four occasions. Indeed his first professional tournament victory was in the 1962 US Open at Oakmont where he beat Palmer in a play-off.

Since then, he has played in all four majors every year. As to whether, at 58, he is taking up a place that should be given to a younger man, it is perhaps worth noting that last year, he was tied 39th in the Masters, tied 52nd in the US Open, tied 60th in the British Open and missed the cut in the USPGA.

In the same four events, Nick Faldo missed the cut, was tied 48th, tied 51st and missed the cut. But then, his contribution to the game has been such that Nicklaus should no longer have anything to prove - especially to the USGA.

"Last year Hale Irwin won nine tournaments and got £2.4 million in prize money. In 1950, I won 11 tournaments and got £53,000 Oh I'd love to start again. Oh boy I'd love it." Sam Snead, who will be 86 in May.

When the Monte Carlo Open was discontinued after the 1992 staging, Ian Woosnam was bitterly disappointed that he had been deprived of the chance of winning it for a fourth successive year. As it happens, four is a magical figure on both sides of the Atlantic.

Percy Alliss (Peter's father), who was German Open champion from 1926 to 1929, holds the European record for successive triumphs in the same event. In the US, it is held jointly by Walter Hagen - "I don't desire to be a millionaire, I just want to live like one" - who won the USPGA Championship from 1924 to 1927, and Britain's Laura Davies, who has four-in-a-row to her credit in the LPGA's Standard Register Ping tournament.

Given that Alliss and Hagen were contemporaries and are probably now engaged in picking Ryder Cup sides in the great blue yonder, tremendous interest is being focused on Davies this weekend. At the Moon Valley CC in Phoenix, she is attempting to win the Standard Register for a record fifth successive year.

Top prize is $127,500 but she will get a special bonus of $300,000 if she secures the big five. A local insurance company is set to launch "Laura's Million Dollar Charity Drive" to fight domestic violence and child abuse, should history be made.

"Obviously it would be terrific for me personally," said Davies, who is greatly admired in this country for her Irish Women's Open victories in 1994 and 1995. "But to earn a million dollars for those good causes would make it very special." She has had 14 wins on the LPGA Tour and has 35 internationally.

Earlier this week I had a phone call from the US about Padraig Harrington. A representative of Maxfli, Robin English, was anxious the public here should know that the Dubliner had signed a contract to play their ball for the next three years.

Particularly interesting, however, was his claim that "we put a very good proposal forward last October" inviting Harrington to renew a two-year club contract he had with them. Instead, the player's handlers at IMG held out for a better deal elsewhere.

Now, Harrington is playing Wilson clubs, but English was still "delighted" to settle for a new, ball-only contract. Which indicates how highly the player is rated from a promotional standpoint.

In one of the most astonishing developments in the history of golf, certain companies are accusing other companies of bare-faced theft. We're not talking about ideas or patents: the items being stolen are expensive golf clubs. It seems that Callaway drivers are being stolen to order.

The Edwin Watts chain of 40 golf retail stores in the US are offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to a conviction. They claim to have lost $500,000 worth of Callaway drivers in recent months. "Somebody big in the retail business is behind these thefts," said a spokesman for the company, "somebody with a retail presence and an export presence."

Another retailer said: "We have them on video. They went right to the Callaway section and pulled left-handed Biggest Big Berthas out of the racks. It was clear they had a shopping list." Given the nature of the clubs, it must be a big-hit list.

Spectators at the Bay Hill Invitational in Orlando this weekend should take comfort from a splendid innovation there. The club is giving a lead internationally by having 40 staff members trained in the use of automated external defibrillators. Arnold Palmer's pride and joy, are responding to the fact that sudden cardiac arrest claims about 325,000 lives in the US each year.

Up until recently, the most common emergency treatment, defibrillation (electric shock), was administered in a hospital or by paramedics. The big problem, however, was that the timelapse was too long, with only five per cent of sufferers likely to survive. Now, portable, user-friendly defibrillators are expected to alter those odds, significantly.

This day in golf history . . . . On March 21st 1931, Gene Sarazen won the LaGorce Open for his 14th career tournament victory on the Florida circuit. Now, having passed his 96th birthday on February 27th, he is preparing for his annual role as an honorary starter at next month's US Masters.

Later in 1931, Sarazen failed in yet another attempt to win the British Open, sharing third place behind Tommy Armour at Carnoustie. But the long-awaited breakthrough came in 1932 at Royal St George's, where he set a record aggregate of 283 for a five-stroke triumph over second-placed Macdonald Smith.

With victory in the US Masters in 1935, Sarazen would later become acknowledged as the first player to win all four major championships. The achievement has since been matched by only three others - Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player.

In Brief: The Tom Rooney Memorial Golf Classic, in association with AIB, will be held at Luttrellstown Castle on April 17th. Enquiries to Barbara Griffin (01) 6614055 . . . . The Irish Osteoporosis Society are staging a Fundraising Golf Classic at Royal Tara on May 18th. Enquiries to Tara Dwyer (01) 6789333.

Teaser: A player plays a stroke on a putting green. While the ball is in motion, a ball played at another hole strikes the player's ball and knocks it into a bunker. What is the ruling?

Answer: Since the player's ball was deflected by a moving outside agency, the player's stroke is cancelled and he must replace his ball (Rule 19-1b).