O'Connor lays blame on Woosnam

In the heat of competitive battle on Sunday, it was entirely understandable that Ian Woosnam should have turned angrily on his caddie, Miles Byrne. But a leading Irish player, who endured a similar experience, insisted yesterday the responsibility for the clubs in the bag rests ultimately with the player.

Christy O'Connor Jnr suffered heartbreak in the first round of the 1985 World Cup at La Costa, where he eventually lost out to Howard Clark for the individual award of $25,000. Unlike Woosnam, who sustained the minimum two-stroke penalty, O'Connor received the maximum of four strokes because the problem wasn't discovered until the fifth tee.

Interestingly, another celebrated breach of Rule 4-4 in recent decades, also remained undetected until the fifth hole. This was in the semi-finals of the 1980 South of Ireland Amateur Championship, in which Mick Morris was playing Arthur Pierse.

There was also a breach by former Welsh tournament player Philip Parkin, who now works as a pundit for Sky Sports. During the 1992 Italian Open, Parkin discovered his son's toy putter wedged at the bottom of his golf bag. Having carried it, unwittingly, for the entire round and then signed his card, he was disqualified.

In the World Cup, O'Connor was partnered by his close friend, Eamonn Darcy. "Before the round, I had been practising with a wedge given me by the Northwestern company," he said. "I told the caddie to make sure it was left out of the bag, but he was distracted by having no place to leave his coat on what was a steaming hot day.

"Anyway, the upshot was we didn't discover it was in the bag until the fifth. It meant an opening round of 73 became a 77, which was a killer, insofar as Eamonn had opened with a 68."

As it happened, O'Connor went on to card rounds of 67, 67 and 66 for an aggregate of 277. Clark, meanwhile, shot 69, 67, 66 and 70 for 272 to win the individual by five strokes. But O'Connor echoed Woosnam's words of Sunday by adding: "Who knows what might have happened without the first-day penalty."

He went on: "In my experience, Jack Nicklaus was the most meticulous of all players with regard to such matters. He always believed in giving himself plenty of time before a round and would ensure the bag contained precisely what it was supposed to contain. Nothing more; nothing less.

"I also remember partnering Gary Player in a tournament and when he came on to the first tee with a caddie who was new to him, he said: 'Son, how many clubs are we carrying?' But it's the player's responsibility. And we're all aware of that."

In the Morris match, Pierse had his younger brother, Morgan, as caddie. Faced with a 50-yard chip-and-run shot to the Klondyke - the long fifth - Pierse asked for an eight iron. On being handed the club, he recognised it as belonging to his sister.

"Apparently, they had been playing on the Castle Course at Lahinch the previous evening and the club was thrown into Arthur's bag by mistake," said Morris. "It was only when he asked Morgan for his own eight iron he realised the implications of the situation." Morris, a member of Portmarnock, was one down playing the hole, which he won to square the match. And with the imposition of a two-hole penalty on Pierse for carrying the extra club, the Kerryman was two-up on the sixth tee. From there, he went on to win the match, though he later lost the final to Mick Burns.

"There's absolutely no argument about it, professional or amateur, the player is totally responsible," said the former international. Still, when one considers Woosnam could have been £218,334 better off had it not been for Sunday's error, it was inevitable the caddie would become the first target in the blame game. But at least he kept his job.