As deputy chairman of the championship committee of the Royal and Ancient in 1972, I had the honour, in accordance with tradition, of accompanying the final pairing in the Open Championship, which was at Muirfield that year. As it happened, the players were Tony Jacklin and defending champion Lee Trevino.

After 54 holes, the lead was shared by Trevino and Jacklin and the nearest challenger was (Jack) Nicklaus, with (Doug) Sanders also in contention. And the last 10 holes of the final round were the most fascinating I've ever witnessed.

Almost inevitably, it became a matchplay battle between Trevino and Jacklin, who ignored the rest of the field and by the time they had played eight holes, Nicklaus was ahead. I'll never forget it be- cause their response was so magical.

They walked onto the tee at the long ninth (495 yards) and after looking at the leaderboard, Trevino said: "Tony we've got it all to play for; Jack's gone ahead." Jacklin then hit the most perfect tee-shot, straight down the middle, while Trevino hit a scruffy drive which finished in the rough.

But he recovered superbly by leaving a fairway wood on the front edge of the green and Jacklin hit an iron-shot straight into the heart of the green. Then, from all of 60 feet, Trevino holed his putt for an eagle three and Jacklin followed him home, also for an eagle. Now, they were one shot ahead.

After that, it was nip and tuck the whole way home and Jacklin had no luck on the greens. But he battled on and played the most wonderful bunker recovery to save par at the short 16th. So, they were still level with two holes to play and as far as they were concerned, nobody else was in the frame.

The 17th (542 yards) was so remarkable because Jacklin, whose honour it was, hit a beautiful tee-shot up the right-hand side. Trevino, meanwhile, was just steadying himself to hit his tee-shot when, to my absolute horror, a cameraman started to run across the fairway about 220 yards out.

At first, Trevino stopped and joked about it, wise-cracking with the crowd before settling himself once more by going through his pre-shot routine. But just as he was about to hit the ball, the cameraman ran across the fairway again.

Now he was far from amused. Naturally, I felt for him but there was clearly nothing we could do. Anyway, he proceeded to heel the shot into the bunkers on the left, whereupon he turned to me and called me and the R and A and the British in general, everything you could imagine.

Only two holes previously, he had been most co-operative when I felt obliged to stop them for fear they would hit into the players in front. Jacklin, on the other hand, was anxious to keep going and I remember saying to Lee that if he wanted to help me, he could stand in front of Tony, to stop him playing.

But this time his mood had changed completely. I told him I couldn't apologise enough for what had happened and I found myself - wrongly, now that I think about it - quietly telling him to calm down and that the Open wasn't over yet.

Trevino wouldn't have any of this. He stormed directly into the bunker and without even steadying himself, proceeded to play his recovery. He then socketed his third shot way to the right of the cross-bunkers and with the same alacrity, his fourth went over the back of the green, onto the ridge.

So, he's lying there in four while Jacklin, after a good second-shot just short of the green, hits a kind of indifferent pitch. Anyway, before Jacklin had marked his ball, Trevino said: "It's your Open, Tony." He then paid no particular attention to what was a very difficult pitch and. . . . into the hole it went for a par.

Suddenly, Jacklin was faced with a 15-footer to take a one-stroke lead with one to play. I have to admit that I was sitting there thinking "God, please don't do what I think you're going to go." But it was no good. The dreadful shock of seeing that pitch go in, caused him to bang the putt past the target and the return putt didn't even hit the hole. Instead of leaving the hole a stroke in front, he was one behind.

Jacklin didn't even make par at the 18th which meant that Nicklaus finished second. So, at the end of the day, Trevino had won, Jacklin was third and I headed for the clubhouse, still trying to grasp what had happened. The golf had been so good and the scoring so dramatic that I was totally exhausted by it all.