In May of last year, a delighted Dave Guiney informed me of great tidings from the world of golf. His daughter Gillian (O'Brien) had just recorded a hole-in-one on the charming sixth at her club, Sutton. Though he never actually asked me, I suspected he would not have been displeased to see the achievement in print.

For whatever reason, I didn't get around to doing anything about it at the time but now, a week after his death, I'm trying to make amends. As it happened, Gillian's ace was especially interesting for the fact that her father had written a most informative history of the Sutton club.

By his own admission, Dave was somewhat dismissive of golfers as being "slightly mad", until he set about writing The Dunlop Book of Golf and found it to be "a fascinating game". Typically, he unearthed quite a few gems, including this one about Liang Huan Lu - the famous Mr Lu - and his challenge for the British Open at Royal Birkdale in 1971.

Explaining how his putting expertise stemmed from playing billiards as a youngster, the amiable Formosan described it as very good practice. "You shoot zoom in the pocket so you putt zoom in hole," he said. "It's the same. Must think only of ball in hole. That makes good putt." Of course, Gillian had no need of the putter for her exploit of 17 months ago.