It's not often that a golf writer finds himself as the subject of a father-and-son exchange like: "Come and say hello to a man who helped me win the British Open." So John Whitbread of the Surrey Herald had reason to be rather pleased with his experience at St Andrews last weekend.

As it happened, he had with him a photograph he has treasured for years. Since 1979, in fact, when he was snapped taking notes while Bill Rogers was driving to success in the World Matchplay Championship at Wentworth. The photo took on a rather special relevance after events at Royal St George's two years later.

Whitbread takes up the story: "When I was out on the morning of the first day of the Open looking for some early news, I happened to see Bill on the putting green. On going over to chat to him, it suddenly struck me that something was wrong.

"Looking at my time-sheet, I saw that Bill was due off at 8.28a.m and it was now 8.27. `You should be on the first tee,' I said to him. But he replied: `No, I'm due off at 8.48.' So I showed him the time-sheet and he immediately rushed to the first tee where he was just in time to avoid a two-shot penalty. And, of course, he went on to win the Open."

Whitworth continued: "On hearing Bill was going to be at the Champions' Challenge last Wednesday, I brought the old photo along, hoping he'd sign it. Not alone did he do so, but he remembered me and introduced me to his son."