When golf scribes gather

Bernard Darwin didn't appear to be overly impressed with the outcome of events at Royal Portrush in 1951. "Faulkner," barked the golf correspondent of the Times, "I understand you've won the Open. Sit there and I'll write about you."

That little item was among some marvellous stories recounted at Wentworth last Sunday, when the Association of Golf Writers (AGW) had a celebratory dinner to mark their 60th anniversary. It was told by John Ingham, the one-time correspondent of the London Evening Standard, who takes the view that we, his successors, defer too much to the current crop of professionals.

Naturally, there were stories about Leonard Crawley, a Walker Cup representative and long-time golf correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, who regularly took Henry Longhurst to task about his manners. It seems that Crawley took particular exception to the idea of his colleague picking up lamb chops with his fingers when dining. It resulted in a one-way stream of letters, all of which commenced with the words: "My dear Henry, It ill becomes you . . . "

Crawley was a wonderful character whom I recall first meeting at a tournament at Royal Dublin in my dim and distant youth. As to dealing with professionals, he always took the view that they should come to him in the clubhouse: he made it a policy never to go in search of them for information.

But there was one very notable exception, which was recalled by Mark Wilson, who wrote for the Evening Standard and the Daily Express. It happened during the PGA Close Championship won by Brian Huggett at Thorndon Park in 1967, when the organisers were so strapped for cash that they had to have a whip-around among their vice-presidents to come up with the prize money.

With dusk closing in rapidly, only four golf writers remained in the clubhouse. One of them was Crawley who, on looking out the window, noticed a lone figure on the practice ground in the distance. "See that young man, all on his own," he said. "When that practice ground is full of young men as dedicated as him, Europe will be able to compete with the world."

Suddenly enthused by the idea, Crawley left his colleagues, got into his distinctive black Mercedes and drove out over the course to where the young man was hitting shots. There, he turned down the window of his car and said: "I am Leonard Crawley and I want you to know your efforts have been noted. I can assure you that your dedication will be rewarded." With that, he wound up the window and drove away.

About 10 minutes later, the young man arrived in the clubhouse, with his bag of clubs cradled in his arms and tears streaming down his face. He wanted to know where the man in the black Mercedes had gone . . . and why he had seen fit to drive over his clubs, smashing them all.

"While I'm stripping myself bare out there on the course, some people are just waiting for me to break," - Colin Montgomerie.

With his wonderful triumph in the Colonial last weekend, Tom Watson has been credited with a total of 34 wins on the US PGA Tour, leaving him in 11th place in the all-time list, two wins behind Lloyd Mangrum. But it now seems that Watson is being shortchanged; that he should, in fact, be among the top 10.

It has to do with the decision in 1995 to have the British Open included as part of the USPGA Tour. Since then, the Open victories of John Daly, Tom Lehman and Justin Leonard have all been added to their American wins. But the process is not retrospective, which means that Watson's five British Open wins don't count.

If British Open wins were to be credited to all of the leading players, nobody in the current top 10 other than Mangrum, would be affected. For instance, Walter Hagen, who is currently seventh with 40 wins, would still he short of Billy Casper (sixth with 51 wins) if his four British Open wins were included.

The same would apply further up the list where Arnold Palmer (fourth with 60 wins), would still be short of Ben Hogan (third with 63), if Palmer's two British successes and Hogan's win at Carnoustie were counted. As things stand, the top 10 with their victories in parentheses are: 1 Sam Snead (81); 2 Jack Nicklaus 70; 3 Ben Hogan (63); 4 Arnold Palmer (60), 5 Byron Nelson (52), 6 Billy Casper (51), T7 Walter Hagen and Cary Middlecoff (40 each); 9 Gene Sarazen (38); 10 Lloyd Mangrum (36); 11 Watson (34).

Eli Callaway, 78-year-old founder of the highly successful company which bears his name, has come up with a gently philosophical response to the current rumpus over Big Bertha drivers. "There is more to the game of golf than driving the ball well," he observed this week.

He went on: "If the US Golf Association starts telling people they can't use Big Berthas, there are going to be some angry golfers out there (12 million of them, to be precise). Golf is hard enough as it is. Why should they want to make it harder."

But the USGA appear to be digging their heels in, though what they can achieve against such financially powerful opponents is highly debatable. Either way, their executive director, David Fay, warns: "I believe there will be some announcement of substance beyond `we're looking into it', at the US Open. If we want to get something in place to announce rules changes for the year 2000, it's incumbent for us to get moving on it."

One could see them achieving some success if they were dealing with some small, maverick manufacturer. But the fact that the targeted company happens to be so successful that others have been forced to copy their products, changes things significantly. Compromise seems to be the key.

In covering the Irish Amateur Open Strokeplay Championship at Royal Dublin recently, I reported the hole-in-one which Tipperary international Pat Murray had with a three-wood at the 280-yard, par-four 16th. I also mentioned that the consensus at the host club was that the feat had never previously been done in competition, though Michael Collins did it in a casual round.

Well it seems that local knowledge was wrong. Cecil Rowden, a former captain of Royal Dublin, has written to inform me that it was done not only once in competition, but twice - and by the same player. Brendan McShane holed out with a driver on July 30th 1983 and with a three wood on June 17th 1992, off the medal tee. To prove it, the club member has a trophy for each ace, in the form of the ball he used, mounted on an inscribed plinth.

Furthermore, Rowden is of the view that Dermot Herlihy, one of Royal Dublin's most distinguished players, may also have had a hole-in-one there, though he can't say for certain. So, the next time someone decides to treat the 16th as a simple little pitch hole . . .

During the Walker Cup at St Andrews in 1938, the AGW was formed with the objective of obtaining an improvement in working conditions for the golfing press. But Henry Longhurst, one of its founding members, took a rather different view of its launch.

Longhurst mischievously remarked that its prime function was to persuade railway station masters to have sleepers - the normal mode of travel in those days for golfers and others attending major events - available on trains from London to St Andrews, Muirfield and Carnoustie, the prime championship venues on Scotland's east coast.

Incidentally, Irish players honoured with the AGW annual trophy were: 1953, Joe Carr; 1958, Harry Bradshaw; 1964, Eisenhower Trophy Team (Joe Carr, capt) and 1977 Christy O'Connor Snr.

This day in golf history . . . On May 30th, 1937, Herman Densmore "Denny" Shute won the USPGA Championship for a second successive year. Victory came at the 37th hole of the final against Harold McSpaden at the Pittsburgh Field Club in Aspinwall, Pennsylvania, where Shute became the fifth and last player to retain the title, emulating the achievement of Jim Barnes, Gene Sarazen, Walter Hagen and Leo Diegel.

Shute's career was noted for its peaks and valleys. In 1933, for instance, as a member of the US Ryder Cup team, he three-putted the last green in the decisive singles to lose to Syd Easterbrook at Southport and Ainsdale. A few weeks later at St Andrews, he tied compatriot Craig Wood for the British Open before beating him in a 36-hole play-off.

Teaser: In a match between A and B, A has played two strokes and the ball with which he played his second stroke out of the rough is on the green. B, having played five, concedes the hole to A. A then discovers that he has played a wrong ball to the green. What is the ruling?

Answer: Since A did not play the wrong ball from a hazard, he lost the hole (Rule 15-2) before B conceded it to him. Therefore, B's concession was irrelevant.