Among all the would-be experts at La Costa last week, Louis Martin stood apart. While the rest of us looked from match to match more in hope than expectation, the chief executive of the South African Tour had the confidence to back Darren Clarke at 66 to 1 for the Andersen Consulting Matchplay Championship.
The extent of his wager has not been disclosed. Nor is the amount that Clarke's manager, Andrew "Chubby" Chandler, bet on his charge winning the second-round match against Mark O'Meara, which he considered to be the greatest certainty of the championship.
Then, by Saturday, Butch Harmon, who coaches both Tiger Woods and Clarke, was reported to have relieved certain London bookmakers of around $10,000 in various bets. Which is hardly surprising, I suppose, given that he happens to be based in Las Vegas.
It was also a very rewarding exercise for Clarke's caddie Billy Foster, a remarkably boyish-looking 34-year-old from Yorkshire. When caddying for Seve Ballesteros, Foster was described by Mac O'Grady as one of the great pacifists of our time. "Billy deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for what he put up with," said the American, who claims an unparalleled knowledge of all matters golfing.
Against that background, the of times volatile Clarke had to be something of a soft touch, even while enduring some crushing disappointments last year. "They have totally different temperaments and it was a much greater strain working for Seve," Foster said of his most recent employers.
He reluctantly parted company with the illustrious Spaniard after the 1995 US Masters, because of his notoriously tight-fisted attitude to caddies. And the contrast with Clarke was never more marked than in the wake of last Sunday's triumph, which guaranteed Foster the standard, 10 per cent pay-off of $100,000. But could it have been more than that? "That's really confidential, but it's going to be a lot of money," replied the native of Bingley, who plays a very useful game off four handicap. He added: "It doesn't get any better than beating Tiger with the whole world watching. It's a dream come true."
Since Clarke no longer has a club contract, it was interesting to note the variety of instruments which Foster carried to victory. There were MacGregor VIP Tour irons, a Titleist 975D driver with a 9.5-degree loft, Callaway number three and number five woods and a Scotty Cameron Putter which, incidentally, he picked up at the local factory only on the Monday before the event.
Meanwhile, there can hardly be a scribe who, at some time or another, wouldn't gladly have paid a king's ransom to be able to retract some ill-conceived prediction. For instance, scribes like Thomas Bonk, whose report in the Los Angeles Times last Sunday morning, started thus:
"Now that he can almost smell the ink on the $1 million winner's cheque, it's time to ask this question: is there anyone in the world better at matchplay than Tiger Woods? If there is, he wasn't there Saturday at La Costa." A doubting Thomas to be sure!
"GEE Mommy, Tiger uses words just like Daddy does when he's golfing." - A young member of the gallery at La Costa last Sunday morning, after Woods had blocked his drive into the right rough at the long ninth in the final against Darren Clarke.
A familiar figure at La Costa last weekend was Tony Jacklin, in his usual black attire. "Your boy's doing well, isn't he," he remarked with a broad smile, minutes after Darren Clarke had brushed David Duval aside in the semi-finals.
It will be recalled that Jacklin formally retired from tournament golf after last year's Wentworth Senior Masters on the August bank holiday weekend. But he has not severed his connections with the game. In fact he is lending his name to the Tony Jacklin America 2000 Senior Tour.
"There is certainly a need for such a tour," he said. "Having been out there for five years and despite having won three events on the main tour and two on the Senior Tour, I couldn't get any exemptions. If this tour is run properly I believe it can be a success."
Tournaments will be held during the summer months within a 20-minute drive of Port St Lucie, Florida, keeping player expenses to a minimum. With three age-divisions, the first event is scheduled for June 28th when the winner will receive $100,000. Jacklin (55) has promised to play in three of them.
As a past captain of the Royal and Ancient, Joe Carr was understandably reluctant to downgrade Fred Daly's British Open triumph of 1947. But after some thought, he concluded: "Our sporting achievements never fail to amaze me, and what Darren Clarke did last weekend has to be the greatest ever performance by an Irish golfer."
He went on: "Consider the facts: he beat six Ryder Cup players in a row, including the number one and number two in the world. Nobody has done that. And while I accept that it's very difficult to compare one generation with another, golfers nowadays are unquestionably better, technically, than in my day. There's no doubt in my book: Darren stands alone."
For the record, when Daly won at Hoylake, there were 263 entries of whom 100 - 92 professionals and eight amateurs - qualified for the Open on a score of 155 or better. The 36-hole cut was 156 on which 40 players - 38 professionals and two amateurs - got through. Daly shot 73,70,78 and 72 for an aggregate of 293 to win by a stroke.
The great secret is out: Jose-Maria Olazabal has chosen beef as the main course on his menu for the champions' dinner at Augusta National on the Tuesday of Masters week. For the culinary minded, it will be solomillo de buey con sausa Bordeleso (fillet of beef with Bordeaux sauce), which, needless to remark, is a regular offering around my neck of the woods.
It will be accompanied by Romaine lettuce with olive oil and vinegar, pitas fritas (small fried potatoes) and shallots. And Senor Olazabal also plans to serve a Spanish red wine, Faustino Rioja circa 1994, the year of his first US Masters win.
Through a change of rule, Canadian-born Brian Watts, who performed admirably before losing a play-off to Mark O'Meara in the 1998 British Open at Royal Birkdale, is now eligible to represent the US in the Ryder Cup. So is Andrew Magee, who was born in 1962 in Paris, where his father worked in the oil business.
At the launch of the Ryder Cup back in 1927, the PGA of America ordained that only those players born in the US would be eligible to compete in the biennial tournament. But at the behest of Watts and his agent, they recently reconsidered the matter.
"I'm pretty fired up about this," said a delighted Watts on hearing the news. Under the new regulation, anybody who is a naturalised US citizen by the time he is 18 is eligible. Watts became a US citizen at 16.
This Day In Golf History . . . On March 4th 1922, Gene Sarazen won his first notable professional title, the Southern Open, five days past his 20th birthday. In July of that year he won the US Open for the first time, shooting 288 at Skokie CC.
Teaser: In a strokeplay competition, the committee failed to place a sign at each teeing ground indicating the hole number. As a result, a group which had just finished the fourth hole, played from the teeing ground of the 12th hole, rather than the fifth hole. Should the members of the group be penalised under Rule 11-4b in the circumstances?
Answer: Yes. The committee were remiss in not placing a sign at each teeing ground. However, each player is responsible for knowing the stipulated round, this being one of the conditions of the competition.
