Perfectly reasonable

Two months ago in this column, I reported a Hong Kong judge as suggesting: "The difficulty with this case is that the player is so incompetent that every time he strikes the ball, there's a obvious risk to anyone in front of him." So it was that his honour found in favour of a caddie who was struck with a golf ball in the mouth. But there's more.

At a more recent sitting, the judge decided on compensation. And he awarded the female caddie about £76,000 for being deprived, through her injuries, of "a pleasant outdoor occupation which gave her a good deal of freedom and enjoyment."

It seems that Ms Chau was only slightly scarred, which was decidedly fortunate given that at one stage, the would-be golfer made seven attempts to hit a ball and then between 10 and 20 strokes to reach the green. His honour deemed such play to be "erratic and unpredictable." Perfectly reasonable, I think you'll agree.

This Day In Golf History . . . . On September 16th 1979, the first team to represent Europe in the Ryder Cup were beaten 17-11 at the Greenbrier, West Virginia. On his singles debut, Seve Ballesteros lost by 3 and 2 to Larry Nelson, at number two in the order, while Ireland's representative, Des Smyth, was beaten 5 and 3 by Hale Irwin, the reigning US Open champion.

Teaser: In strokeplay, a competitor returned an incorrect score for a hole due to failure to include a penalty stroke. After the competition closed, the error was discovered. Does Rule 34-1b allow imposition of a disqualification penalty for a breach of Rule 6-6d?

Answer: As stated in Rule 34-1b, the committee should impose a penalty of disqualification if the competitor knew, before the competition closed, that he had incurred the penalty but intentionally or unintentionally failed to add the penalty to his score, but not if the competitor did not know he had incurred a penalty.