Among the caddying community in these parts, they talk reverentially about Ray "Foot" Mendis, the legendary Pebble Beach looper who once worked for the actor James Garner and tour player Jim Simons. Sadly, at 63 he is now a frail, bearded resident of the Vagabond Motel, about 10 minutes down the road from Cannery Row.

"I don't think I have enough strength left to crush a grape," he said, while adding that he was also low on cash. "My legs are gone, my drinking habits aren't the greatest and I've got a bit of high blood pressure. Two months ago I was supposed to have been found dead in Carmel."

The plight of Mendis illustrates the other side of life in an area of great opulence. It is a sad commentary on the golfing community in general, that he should have been moved to say: "It took me years to learn that the nicer I was to people, the worse they treated me."

His sobriquet stemmed from an incident about 25 years ago when he warned his player not to leave himself a downhill putt on Pebble's treacherous, 11th green. When the 55-footer from the back edge duly careered off the front, naturally the player blamed the caddie.

That was when Mendis calmly dropped a ball from his overalls and flicked it with his toe after it hit the ground. With the bemused player looking on, the ball rolled at breakneck speed down the slippery slope. As Mendis recalled: "Wouldn't you know it, the son of a gun went in." From that day on, he became known to everyone as "Foot".

His fund of stories includes one about a French visitor who didn't know that golf balls had numbers on them until Foot asked him halfway down the first fairway, what he was playing. "Oh boy," remarked the caddie, rolling his eyes.

But the most famous story is not one he is prepared to tell himself. It concerns the occasion when, short-taken out on the course, he headed for a portable toilet and attempted to take the golf bag inside. There wasn't enough room.

After several attempts, Foot and his bag were wedged in and the more he struggled, the more the portoloo shook. Finally it tipped over, much to the delight of fascinated onlookers. And as Oliver Goldsmith might have written: and still they gazed and still the odour grew . . ."They tell a lot of stories," says Foot of his colourful past.

But the most interesting one of all concerns the time, almost 60 years ago when Russian soldiers dragged his father from his Latvian home and bayoneted him to death. That was when his mother fled with her son to America, where he eventually found a new life on California's west coast, via the Vietnam war.

Of the Vagabond Motel, he remarked: "This kinda suits me just fine." But the Pebble Beach caddies wonder, for how long more.

"The perfect scenario would be Tiger and Sergio and throw in Phil Mickelson and David Duval. That would be a dream for everybody." - Johnny Miller on the ideal climax to this weekend's US Open.

Initially, Jack Nicklaus didn't seem to like the question: was there a difference in attempting to win 18 major titles these days, compared with his golden era?

After some thought, however, he concluded that their could be no comparison, from a media standpoint.

"I didn't think about the subject until after I had won the British Open in 1970," he said. "When I walked in they said `Jack that's great. That's your 10th major. You have only three more to tie Bobby Jones.' That was the first time anyone mentioned it."

He went on: "For Tiger, it's a lot different today. But I don't think it's fair to compare my record of tournament wins (not necessarily majors) to Jones or Sam Snead or Ben Hogan, or Tiger for that matter. We all played at different times.

And we played against different people. The only logical comparison you have is the majors."

On which point Nicklaus has 18 and Woods has two - for the moment. Meanwhile, in a fascinating interview in the current issue of Golf Digest, the Bear was asked to name his all-time, all-star golf team. To which he replied:

"For ball-striking, I would have Ben Hogan and Lee Trevino. My putters would be Palmer and Tom Watson. Best driver, Arnold and Greg Norman. Best iron player, Hogan. Best bunker player, Gary Player. Best chipper, Watson. Most imaginative, Seve Ballesteros. You notice how all those players were ones who won a lot of majors."

Shooting one's age is commonplace among male golfers but rare among women. In fact it is believed the feat has been accomplished only 10 times in the US since 1972, while no records are available for Europe.

All of which emphasises the remarkable achievement of 90-year-old Margaret Dewsbury, who recently shot 90 at Forest Hills GC in Augusta, Georgia. And it seems that she is only the second ???????????????nonogenarian woman to shoot her age, joining Rose Montgomery of Palm Springs who was 96 when she carded a 92 at Canyon CC.

"I knew I needed to two-putt the last hole," said Ms Dewsberry. "I was scared. Sometimes you cannot convince yourself you can make it." Mind you, putting shouldn't have been a problem since she holds the rare distinction for a woman of having played Augusta National. And what's the secret of shooting your age? "It gets easier as you get older," she replied.

AS a tribute to the late Payne Stewart, The Monterey County Herald this week has printed a moving extract from To An Athlete Dying Young by the 19th century Worcestershire poet, A E Housman. It reads: The time you won the town a race, . . . We chaired you through the marketplace . . . . Man and boy stood cheering by, . . . . And Home we brought you shoulder-high. . . . Today, the road all runners come, . . . "Shoulder-high we bring you home, . . . . And set you at your threshold down, . . . . Townsman of a stiller town. No doubt the good people of Springfield, Missouri, Stewart's home place, could echo those words.

Teaser: A player putts and the ball comes to rest just short of the hole. The player then instinctively throws his putter towards the ball, but misses. Should the player incur a penalty for a breach of Rule 1-2 which prohibits taking action to influence the position of the ball?

Answer: No. If the putter had moved the ball, the player would have incurred a penalty stroke under Rule 18-2a and would be required to replace the ball.