Hat-trick of heroes at Pinehurst

In this part of the golfing world, Harvie Ward is best remembered as the British Amateur champion of 1952, who went on to lose to Joe Carr in the final at Hoylake the following year. Nowadays, however, Ward holds the distinction of being one the three highest-profile golfers living in the Pinehurst area. And the other two are women.

Current interest in the trio is explained by the first staging of the US Open at Pinehurst No 2 next week. And in a way, celebrity links with Pinehurst are reminiscent of the luxurious Kilcroney Country Club outside Bray, which reached its peak as a haven of the rich and famous in the late 1930s and the 1940s.

It once played host to the famous Horse Show Ball, which was attended by international celebrities such as Gene Autry and Count John McCormack. Indeed, early in 1951, one of the guests was the former prize-fighter "Two-Ton" Tony Gallento, who came to Dublin for a wrestling match against Ireland's Jack Doyle at Tolka Park.

Harry Bradshaw was the resident professional until he took over from Eddie Hackett at Portmarnock in June 1950. And by that stage, Kilcroney, where Christy Greene succeeded The Brad before moving on to Milltown, was going into decline. The sale to Roadstone of the outer nine of the 18-hole course eventually sounded the death-knell of a once magnificent facility.

Back to Ward, who won the US Amateur in 1955 and 1956. Though he is a native of North Carolina, he spent much of his life in California. As a current resident of Pinehurst Village, where he has a par-three hole in his backyard, he said: "I always felt the two places I'd like to live were Carmel and Pinehurst."

Among his neighbours is Peggy Kirk-Bell, a founder-member of the LPGA Tour who now owns the Pine Needles and Mid Pines golf resorts. Tall and striking, with high cheekbones not unlike Katherine Hepburn, she was clearly imbued with a pioneering spirit when she first went on tour.

"I flew my own plane," she recalled. "When I went to buy it, I chose the best-looking one I could get and when I discovered it was too slick for a learner, I traded it for one with the colour I liked best." With teaching professional Ellen Griffin, she started the "Golfaris" programme at Pine Needles in the 1960s, while rearing a young family.

Her husband, Warren (Bullet) Bell, died in 1984, but with the help of their three children, she carried on what had become a flourishing business and, with Griffin's help, began the first three-day golf schools for women. Meanwhile, Pine Needles played host to the 1996 US Women's Open.

The third elite golfing resident of Pinehurst is professional Donna Andrews, who met her husband, John Reeves, while competing in the Women's North and South Amateur at Pinehurst in 1988, when he was a member of the teaching staff. They now live outside the village where she raises and works horses, when not competing on the LPGA Tour.

"The other day on the range it was pretty cool watching him out there hitting balls with the perfect trajectory, never a bad shot. I'm thinking, `Wow, if I'm as old as he is, I'd like to be able just to walk'."

- Tiger Woods, talking about Jack Nicklaus after winning the Memorial Tournament last weekend.

Now that he has savoured Irish links terrain on a recent tour of this fair land, Michael Jordan is looking towards a fresh golfing challenge. And it is an intriguing one, which will involve two other retired American sports celebrities, along with the 1992 US Masters champion, Fred Couples.

The plan is that Jordan, ice-hockey icon Wayne Gretzky and legendary quarter-back John Elway will challenge Couples with their best ball in a made-for-television match, provisionally titled "Legends at Play". Scheduled for Shadow Hawk GC in Houston next November, it will be aired in the US on Christmas Day.

Couples, an enthusiastic sports fan, has played several times with Jordan and once with Elway, but he has never teed it up with Gretzky. "When one of them retired, then another, then another, the idea of the match just struck me, seeing how much they love golf," he said. "Hopefully it's going to be a fun deal for everyone."

Which is actually true, given that nobody is to be paid and the proceeds will go to charity.

From countless endorsement deals negotiated as head of IMG, Mark McCormack could be expected to have a reasonable idea of which clubs to play. So, what are his choices to complement a handicap of 10? Not surprisingly, he has many clubs, but the current favourites are: Callaway driver, Adams Tight Lies fairway wood, Hogan irons and an old Bullseye putter. He also uses a wedge Jack Nicklaus gave him more than 20 years ago and a sand-wedge from Gary Player. And they're all carried in an Arnold Palmer bag.

When the British Open returns to Carnoustie next month for the first time since Tom Watson's victory in 1975, memories are certain to be revived of Ben Hogan's triumph there in 1953. But the great man's widow, Valerie, revealed this week that he made the trip only after some determined persuasion from herself and mutual friends.

It was widely acknowledged that Hogan's only British Open appearance was in response to the urging of fellow professionals. Rivals such as Sam Snead convinced him that he couldn't be seen as the world's greatest player unless he competed in all four professional major championships.

According to Valerie, there was need for some convincing. "He kept saying, `I think you want me to go, just to see me get beat over there'," she recalled, when attending the opening of the Ben Hogan Room in the US Golf Association Museum last Tuesday.

She also gave an interesting insight into the making of the movie Follow the Sun, in which Glenn Ford played her husband. Hogan's swing was actually used for the tournament shots but Ford did the putting, with an most unconvincing method. "Glenn worked so hard, but he did not know how to play golf," she said. "But he told them (the producers) he did." Which, come to think of it, is essentially what acting is all about.

It seemed like a sure-fire winner when Gregg "Braddo" Bradford quit his marketing job 12 months ago to try for a career on the US Tour. The clever bit was that his dawn-to-dusk work with psychologists and physical trainers at the David Leadbetter Academy would become the subject of a television series called Going Low.

But while helping Bradford go low, his television producer went missing - leaving behind unpaid bills totalling several thousand dollars. Now the producer, who was Bradford's best friend since high school, is being accused of perpetrating a scam, after shooting 60 hours of film.

All of which has left Bradford with good news and bad news. The good news is that a player who had to be content with scores in the low eighties a year ago, is now down to a four handicap. The bad news is that with debts of $10,000, he is reduced to working as a helper at a golf course in Palm Desert. Mind you, I know a few people who would be more than happy to pay $10,000 for a four handicap.

This day in golf history . . . On June 12th, 1939, Byron Nelson captured his only US Open after an extended playoff with Craig Wood and Denny Shute. It came at Philadelphia CC and was the first three-way tie since Francis Ouimet beat Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in 1913.

But the most dramatic aspect of the 1939 US Open was that Sam Snead, with victory in his grasp, dropped four strokes over the last two holes. Even after a bogey at the 71st, Snead needed only a six at the long 72nd to tie. But he hooked his drive, pushed a brassie into a bunker, took two to get out of the trap, pitched on in five and three-putted for a wretched eight.

In fact the event went to a second, 18-hole play-off after Nelson and Wood finished level once more. Nelson eventually won by 70 to 73.

Teaser: A player's ball lies in a playable position on the bank of a water hazard. The player hits the ball out of bounds. If he proceeds under Rule 27-1 and drops a ball on the bank as nearly as possible at the spot from which the original ball was played, the ball will be likely to roll into deep water. May he place the ball in such circumstances, rather than drop it?

Answer: No. However, the player is not obliged to drop a ball within the hazard in accordance with Rule 27-1. He may take the penalty stroke provided in Rule 27-1 and then, under an additional penalty of one stroke, put a ball into play outside the hazard in accordance with either Rule 26-2b (ii) or 26-2b (iii).