TOURNAMENT professionals are spoon fed to such a degree these days that we shouldn't be surprised at their alarming ignorance of some of the more basic rules of the game. The issue gained particular emphasis in Cape Town last weekend when Bernhard Langer and China's Lian Wei Zhang were both penalised two strokes for rules infringements.

Nobody would dispute that elements of the Rules of Golf are decidedly complex, hence the necessity to have officials on hand during competitive events. But one would expect a player of Langer's experience to know that he couldn't use a towel to sweep loose impediments from the line of a putt. As it happened, he claimed afterwards never to have heard of such a rule.

Zhang was penalised because his caddie rode on a golf cart between the 14th green and 15th tee, in contravention of a local rule in professional events. According to Rule 6-4: "For any breach of a rule by his caddie, the player incurs the applicable penalty."

The Chinese were playing opposite the US, who seemed highly embarrassed by the whole affair. Indeed, when the penalty was explained by European Tour referee, John Paramor, after the round, Tom Lehman protested its severity, adding: "It's time they had another look at that rule."

There have been come celebrated cases of rules' infringements by professionals, notably that in which Craig Stadler was penalised for playing a stroke while kneeling on a towel. In attempting to protect his slacks from damp ground, he was guilty of building a stance.

The fact is that career amateurs - Ireland's Arthur Pierse is one player who comes immediately to mind - are far more au fait with the rules than their brethren in professional ranks. Which brings me to a recent British Open in which I saw a prominent tournament professional engage in some decidedly curious antics after hooking a drive into a bush.

On deciding that the ball was unplayable, he lifted it from the bush, presumably to take relief under penalty. Before dropping the ball, however, he noticed that a television pylon obstructed his line to the green. So, with the approval of his playing partners, who remained in the middle of the fairway, he claimed line of sight relief and played on without penalty.

As it happened, Langer's two shot penalty at Erinvale made no difference to Germany's overall position or to his third placing in the individual table. But this normally meticulous player would have recalled the 1992 Dutch Open in which he was the surprised beneficiary of rules ignorance by a tournament colleague.

Mike McLean had actually returned the best score, but was later penalised two strokes for removing growing strands of vine which covered his ball in rough at the 11th. By improving his lie in breach of the rules, McLean handed the title to Langer, causing the German to exclaim: "This is the most unusual win of my life."

"Only half the lies you bastards told about me are true." The irrepressible Tommy Bolt, remonstrating with the American golfing media.

ONE might imagine that it would be extremely difficult to miss a waste site as large as 12 1/2 acres in a golf course complex. But it was only yesterday, in the company of club captain Michael Forde, that I laid eyes on Greystones' hidden treasure.

There, to the left of the green at what I remembered as the old 17th (the present sixth) - the so called Rock Hole - lay the answer to a major problem for the Co Wicklow club. And with the design skills of Paddy Merrigan, an ambitious project costing £356,000 is well under way.

Though Walter Hagen urged that one should take time to smell the flowers, golfers wouldn't win prizes for observation. So I suspect I wasn't alone in failing to notice the large expanse of elevated, gorse covered terrain, before progressing to the old 18th tee. But in a reconstructed front nine, Merrigan will lay out three new holes across the slopes - the fourth fifth and sixth - through the movement of 30,000 cubic metres of earth.

The project, which started last month and with a projected opening in August 1998, solves a number of problems for the club. Not least of these were the dangers inherent in four "crossings" on the existing front nine, which, sadly, is to lose "The Bell", one of the most famous par threes in Irish golf.

"I'm delighted with the opportunity of bringing Greystones into the next century," said Merrigan, who will be building seven new greens to USGA specifications. The contouring will be more gentle than the three links greens he designed at Sutton, but admirably testing nonetheless.

So, a club that has already seen dramatic changes in recent years is set for further development. It will be recalled that having lost their delightful old clubhouse in a fire in 1988, Greystones extensively refurbished a manor house which became their new clubhouse in 1991.

TIGER WOODS will be back on home soil next week, partnering the British Women's champion, Kelly Kuehne, in the J C Penney mixed foursomes Classic in Florida where, incidentally, Laura Davies will be teaming up with John Daly. But with all the fuss surrounding the 20 year old's dramatic gentry into professional ranks, it may be no harm to place his achievements in perspective.

Last August, Woods became the first player to win three successive US Amateur titles which, added to his three junior titles, gives him six in all. Yet, he is placed no higher than joint fifth in the all time winners of USGA titles.

Leading the field, in quality and quantity, is the great Bobby Jones with nine victories - five US Amateur and four US Open. The full list is: 9 Jones; 8 Joanne Carner (Amateur 5, Open 2, Junior 1); 8 Jack Nicklaus (Open 4, Amateur 2, Senior 2); 7 Anne Sander (Senior 4, Amateur 3); 6 Hollis Stacy (Open 3, Junior 3); 6 Glenna Collett Vare (Amateur 6); 6 Woods (Amateur 3, Junior 3).

BY the end of 1976 John Bland's rare excursions to Europe had earned him the princely sum of £146 in official money. Considerably more successful was the Oxford born John D Morgan, though commitments as club professional at Stoneham precluded him from any European Tour activities that year.

Meanwhile, Tony Jacklin remained the biggest name in British golf. Only six years had passed since he added the US Open title at Hazeltine to his British Open crown of 1969. And Irish enthusiasts watched him capture the Kerrygold Classic at Waterville.

Let's now move forward 20 years. After an astonishing debut season which brought him four victories on the US Seniors' Tour, Bland has official earnings of $1,236,987 and looks set to become financially secure for life. And by finishing fifth in the Seniors' Qualifying School at Sawgrass last weekend, Morgan has guaranteed himself full exemptions into all tournaments for next year.

And Jacklin? Sadly, where Hugh Baiocchi was also successful at Sawgrass, earning a card in 10th place, the once all conquering Englishman failed, finishing in a share of 24th place. Jacklin was forced to return to the school when he missed out on the leading 31 positions on the money list: he finished 47th with $310,247 from 34 events. Now, his only hope of competition next season is through sponsors invitations.

So, what is it that separates two seemingly ordinary players from one of the finest practitioners of his day? The cruel truth is that, whereas Bland can putt extremely well and Morgan is competent with the blade, Jacklin no longer has a reliable touch on the greens. And in senior golf, above all other grades, that's the difference between success and failure.

In brief: Brian Coburn informs me that his Banbidge based company wilt be giving seminars next week on bentgrass and organics at Clandeboye (Tuesday), Westmanstown (Wednesday), Lee Valley (Thursday) and Galway GC (Friday).

TEASER: In removing loose impediments from his line of putt by brushing with a putter, a player brushed along the line for about one foot before brushing the impediments to the side. Did the player infringe Rule 16-1?

Answer: Under Rule 16-1a, a player is allowed to brush aside impediments on the line of putt (with his hand or a club). The casual movement of the putter along the line of putt would not be a breach of the rules unless in the process the player did something to the putting green which might influence the movement of his ball when played (Rule 1-2).