Stuart Paul didn't make it to the first tee in this week's British Open. From third alternate he went to second alternate, but no further. By his own estimation, however, the 27-year-old gained a reward which will sustain him for the remainder of his golfing life.
"There it is," said the plus-one handicap amateur from Tandragee. "If I never play in another tournament, this is reward enough." With that, he proudly showed me the commemorative medal marked `Player', with the traditional, R and A blue surround. It was given to every competitor this week, including such luminaries as Tom Watson and Tiger Woods. But I hadn't known that each of the four alternates also got one.
Niall Goulding, another leading amateur, joined Paul among the survivors of a play-off at Co Louth earlier this month, when regional qualifying for the Open was held in the Republic of Ireland for the first time. He then competed in final qualifying at Hesketh, but after two rounds of 77, was well outside the limit.
Kenneth Kearney, last year's Irish Amateur champion, didn't have to regionally qualify. But he failed to survive at Southport and Ainsdale on 152. So, by getting into a play-off at West Lancs on 150, Paul, the only non-international of the trio, did best. But was it worth all the bother?
Goulding had no doubt. "The objective of every amateur must be to try and play at the highest level," he said. "The R and A gave me that chance at Co Louth and I was delighted to take it. I was given the opportunity of realising a lifetime's ambition and, quite frankly, I'm surprised that so few Irish amateurs responded."
At West Lancs, where five competitors played-off for the last two of 14 qualifying places, Paul was eliminated at the first hole. But the other three played on to decide who would become third alternate. This time the Ulster interprovincial was best with a par at the long second. "That was probably the most important par I ever made," he said.
Paul went on: "I had to miss the North of Ireland Championship to be here and it has cost me an entry fee of £80 and expenses of around £1,500. But it's been worth every penny. Everybody has been really nice to me, players like Padraig Harrington and Paul McGinley whom I knew as amateurs. And I had a practice round with Des Smyth. Terrific."
Tournament professionals were duty-bound to battle for a place in the game's most-prized championship. But it was good to see club professionals, such as Leslie Walker (Foxrock) and Brendan McGovern (Headfort), being prepared to pay for the chance of rubbing shoulders with the game's elite.
As Paul was happy to discover, democracy is very much alive and well in golf, especially at the highest level.
"I went out in 34 and back in an ambulance," Richard Boxall, the English professional, recalling the freak leg fracture he sustained while competing in the 1991 British Open at Royal Birkdale.
Even computers can be sexist. The proof came at the recent opening of the World Golf Village in Florida, where the attendance were invited to test a computerised swing analyser which was supposed to find the professional golfer their motion most closely resembled.
Up stepped Nancy Lopez, one of the more celebrated names in the LPGA Hall of Fame. The computer's conclusion? Her swing most resembled that of the 1993 winner of the USPGA championship, Paul Azinger. It was only after four further attempts that Nancy's name appeared on the screen.
"I'm from Detroit, Michigan," said the American visitor to the Media Centre here at Birkdale. "Can you tell me about this black golf ball?" "This what?" "Look, it says it here in this magazine clipping." And there it was. According to Golf Refugees, whoever they are, the black golf ball (£11.99 Stg per doz) is more visible and flies better than its white counterpart because of its heat-retention qualities. And no, it's not endorsed by Gary Player.
Earlier this week, there were some rather special women at the annual dinner of the Association Golf Writers' (AGW) at Birkdale. Indeed the writers' award went to a woman, England's Alison Nicholas, who gained a marvellous victory in the US Women's Open at Pumpkin Ridge last year. (While congratulating her, I suggested, much to her amusement, what a proud occasion it was to have the 1996 Irish Open champion receive such an award.)
Two other notable women at the function were Pia Nilsson and Judy Rankin, respective captains of this year's European and US Solheim Cup teams for the match at Muirfield Village on September 18th to 20th. This, of course, is the venue where Europe's men gained their first Ryder Cup triumph on American soil, 11 years ago.
Rankin, one of the all-time great American women golfers, was on this side of the Atlantic in her capacity as a pundit with the ABC television commentary team. And she did the honours of presenting the award to Nicholas, who broke many American hearts by depriving their much-loved Nancy Lopez of the title yet again.
As it happened, Lopez was surprisingly passed over as a captain's pick for the 1996 Solheim Cup. But she is determined to make it this time, when the line-up is announced after the State Farm Rail Classic on August 18th to 20th. "Hopefully I can do it by playing the next four weeks," said the American legend. Nilsson will be naming the European line-up during the Compaq Women's Open in Sweden next month.
Meanwhile, at the annual general meeting of the AGW on Wednesday, Joe Carr was named as a vice-president of the association, along with Jack Nicklaus and Peter Thomson. They join similarly august company in Arnold Palmer and Augusta National's Charlie Yates.
Christy O'Connor Snr will be present at Forrest Little on Monday, August 17th on what is certain to be a poignant occasion for him. He was first roped into the annual outing of the Mended Hearts' GS by his good friend and secretary of the society, Peter O'Neill, with whom he collaborated on a golf column in the Sunday World.
Sadly, Peter died last month. But his fine work goes on, with the 14th staging of the outing in aid of the National Cardiac Surgical Unit at the Mater Hospital and the Cardiac Rehabilitation Unit at Beaumont Hospital. Treasurer, Kay Judge, has stepped into the breach and she informs me that a timesheet has been posted in the host club (tel 01-8401763). She will also be happy to take enquiries at 01-8214105.
This day in golf history . . . . On July 18th, 1982, Tom Watson, by his own admission, backed into a fourth British Open title. It came at Royal Troon where Watson was two strokes behind the leader Bobby Clampett after an opening 69; seven strokes adrift at the halfway stage and in fifth place entering the final round.
By his success, the American joined such luminaries as Willie Park, Old Tom Morris, Young Tom Morris, Bobby Locke and Walter Hagen as a four-time winner. But he would improve on that achievement at Birkdale a year later. A title that several players could have won, eventually fell to Watson with a four-under-par aggregate of 284.
Ireland's Des Smyth was among the nearly-men on that occasion. But where Watson carded an inward 35 in his final round, despite a bogey at the 15th, Smyth slipped to a homeward 37 after starting back 4-4- 5 against the American's 4-3-4. Watson's win made him only the fifth player to win the British and US Opens in the same year, emulating Bobby Jones (1926 and 1930), Gene Sarazen (1932), Ben Hogan (1953) and Lee Trevino (1971).
In Brief: As might be expected, there has been a large influx of Irish visitors to the Lancashire area for this week's British Open. But according to Simon Tormey of Golfing Ireland, the traffic will be going the other way in September. That is when 200 members of the Liverpool Golf Captains' Society will play their annual championship in this country for the first time - at Powerscourt, Druids Glen and Woodenbridge on the 14th to 16th . . . Just in case Phil Mickelson produces any dramatic exploits this weekend, it should be noted that Peter Dawson was the first left-handed player to have a hole-in-one in the British Open, at Birkdale's short fourth in 1976.
Teaser: In strokeplay, a competitor's ball was moved by wind. Since wind is not an outside agency, he should have played it from where it came to rest, but he replaced it. What is the ruling?
Answer: The competitor incurred one penalty stroke under Rule 18-2a, and, before playing his next stroke, he should have replaced the ball on the spot where it came to rest after being moved by the wind. If he did not do so, he incurred a total penalty of two strokes.
