On hearing that Michael Bonallack was playing the course, Michael Murray decided to take a walk with his wife at Royal Co Down. As a member of the Mourne club, he knew his way around. Seeing his man on the sixth tee, Murray made the approach, whispering to his wife: "I bet he doesn't know me from Adam."

Before the local could open his mouth again, Bonallack had his hand extended in a warm greeting. "You'd have thought we were long-lost brothers," said the Ulsterman. That was last autumn and the secretary of the Royal and Ancient was visiting the venue in preparation for this week's British Amateur - in which he had beaten Murray in the first round, 28 years previously.

They met again earlier this week and shared memories of an 8.0 a.m. start in 1970, when Royal Co Down was bathed in glorious sunshine. One sensed Bonallack was feigning amnesia as to the result of the match but Murray readily admitted to a 7 and 6 trouncing.

Sean Clarke, another Mourne member, recalled joining them in the bar where he assured the Englishman: "After beating my pal, you're going to win the title." And so it happened, with Bonallack gaining a third successive victory and, as it proved, the last of his five Amateur triumphs.

When I asked at the Mourne GC bar for the telephone number of the local bookmakers where their clubmate worked, two voices obliged in unison. Later, Murray said: "After our match, Michael and me came over here to Mourne for a drink and I still have a photograph we had taken outside the clubhouse."

Prior to 1970, Murray's claim to fame was as captain of the Mourne team which won the All-Ireland Junior Cup at Portmarnock in 1959. "Dr Billy O'Sullivan presented me with the cup," he said. "I was off two when I played in the Amateur."

Now 69 and a useful 12-handicapper, he retains great pride in having played such a famous opponent before the biggest gallery of the day. "It was my only appearance in the Amateur and when Michael reached the turn in 35, he had the match fairly well wrapped up. And he was as nice a man as I've ever played."

Bonallack also recalls the occasion with obvious affection. "It was a beautiful week, sunny, warm, shirt-sleeve weather, with a gentle breeze," he said. "I remember being quite keen to win three-in-a-row because it had never been done before.

"The championship was special in that it was probably the first one to be televised, with Peter Alliss doing one of his first commentaries. And I remember (runner-up) Bill Hyndman's magnificent swing and of how tired he got at the end of a hot week."

Not surprisingly, Royal Co Down remains very dear to his heart. "To my mind, this is probably the greatest golf course we have in the British Isles," he added. "The course itself, the magnificent scenery, the club, the members - it's simply an ideal place for golf and for the Amateur Championship."

"I shall return." A defiant Richard Hodgkinson from Lindrick, borrowing the words of General Douglas MacArthur after carding a 12 on the 18th hole at Royal Co Down on Tuesday.

A so-called Ambassadors Club has been formed to acknowledge "the highly significant roles made by players in elevating the status of the European Tour and the popularity of the game." Splendid idea. And it comes with a list of the 38 founder members.

Rather curious, however, is that Darren Clarke is the only Irishman on the list - as a member of the 1997 Ryder Cup team. Not a mention of Christy O'Connor Snr, who was the first winner of a four-figure cheque; winner of a world-record first prize of £25,000 in the 1970 John Player Classic and the man who set a record of 10 successive Ryder Cup appearances, since surpassed by Nick Faldo.

This glaring omission arises from a flawed qualification system. It specifies members or former members who from 1971 to 1999 have won 10 times or more on the combined European, European Seniors and Challenge tours; (or) who have major championships between 1971 and 1999; who were on the 1997 Ryder Cup team; who were Ryder Cup captains 1971 to 1999 and Vardon Trophy winners for the same period. Maybe the tour should have another look at the process.

Manic motorists returning from Carlow to Dublin, had cause to be on the lookout for gardai long before the M7 and M9 were built. Indeed the activities of one such driver significantly increased the loss incurred by Carlow GC, when Gene Sarazen played Joe Kirkwood in an exhibition there on July 15th, 1934.

Details of the incident, and much more besides, are to be found in the richly illustrated history of Carlow GC, From Gotham to Deerpark, which has been produced to mark this, the club's centenary. It was researched and written with admirable thoroughness by Bill Gibson and includes some delightful cartoons by Martyn Turner.

Part of the Sarazen deal was that the club would hire a taxi from Doyles of Bachelors Walk, Dublin to drive the players there and back, at a cost of three guineas. But the final bill was somewhat higher, due to the fact that the taxi driver, a certain D Hunt, was fined £5 for dangerous driving, having been stopped by gardai on the return journey.

The fine was later reduced on appeal to £1, which the club were obliged to pay along with legal costs of six shillings and eight pence. All of which had to be added to an official loss on the exhibition of £17 15s.

Meanwhile, Carlow members who may get a little ahead of themselves in all the current celebrating, should note Gibson's story about golf balls from the club. It seems they were so badly hacked that the Dunlop company refused to re-cover them, as was the practice during World War II. Indeed the company advised the club that "balls which had sustained cuts penetrating the cover of the thread and with perished covers, are all unfit for remoulding and should not be sent in future."

All in all, the book is an extremely worthy memorial of a century during which a highly progressive club employed such renowned course architects as Cecil Barcroft, JH Taylor and Fred Hawtree, Alister MacKenzie and Tom Simpson.

In different circumstances, John Nestor would probably have phoned by now to castigate me about my reports from Royal Co Down this week. Or perhaps it would have been to remind me of some forgotten exploit by one of his golfing idols, Joe Carr. Sadly, there will be no more calls: John died last weekend.

From the time I referred in print to his rather curt manner, he would leave messages describing himself as "Mr Gruff". But in truth, he had a gentle spirit and a great love of golf. He also had an extraordinary knowledge of the game, to which his colleagues at Milltown GC would testify.

John played for Ireland from 1962 to 1964 and had the distinction in 1964 of appearing in the last 36-hole final of the South of Ireland, which he lost by 2 and 1 to Bill Kelleher. It was a classic. He shot 68 in the morning to Kelleher's 69 but the scoring was even better in the afternoon, when the Corkman needed a birdie on the 18th for a round of 65.

At Royal Co Down this week, Jody Fanagan told me of an occasion at Milltown when John asked him what he saw when he stood on the tee. "I look at both sides of the fairway," replied the Walker Cup player. "That's wrong," he was told. "You must pick out an exact spot, just as if you were hitting to a green." That was John. Ar dheis De go raibh a anam.

This day in golf history . . . On June 5th, 1932, Tommy Armour beat Argentinian Jose Jurado by a stroke to win the British Open at Carnoustie. After missing a short putt on the 17th, the so-called Silver Scot later explained how he coped with a similar effort on the last. "I took a new grip, holding the club as tightly as I could and with stiff wrists," he said. "From the instant the club left the ball on the backswing, I was blind and unconscious."

Teaser: In a match between A and B, A has played to 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.

(Decisions on the Rules of Golf by the R and A and the USGA).