Golfing Log: If this piece were to reflect current happenings in line with perceived public interest, it would probably include a reference to the 2006 Ryder Cup captaincy, which came under scrutiny last weekend. Other professional activities on both sides of the Atlantic, would demand attention. And some reference might be made to the ongoing concern about the game's high-tech equipment.
All of which contrasts rather sharply with the golfing climate in March 1981, when this column was launched in a blaze of er ... apathy, because of the severe pressure on space back then. My persistence, however, happened to coincide with a gradual increase in the size of the paper. And so the Log survived.
Now, after 21 years and two months, it is at an end. Which, among other things, affords us the opportunity of noting the dramatic changes that have taken place in people's golfing interests during that time.
For instance, back in 1981, top-level amateur golf retained significant appeal over the professional game. Even with Europe set to challenge for the Ryder Cup against the strongest-ever American side at Walton Heath, there was far greater Irish interest in the exploits of Ronan Rafferty and Philip Walton.
Indeed on May 5th, when this column appeared on a Tuesday, the heading on the main piece read: "Rafferty needs top class competition." And at the ripe old age of 17, the Warrenpoint youth was informing us that it would "hardly improve the quality of my play" to continue competing at junior level. So, the only championship he contested here that year was the Close, in which he was defending the title.
Rafferty, of course, was a stout advocate of the big, American ball, at a time of transition between it and the established, 1.64 inch British model. Not a mention about the impact of modern equipment, as competitors in the Walker Cup at Cypress Point were given the option of playing either ball. And while most opted for the larger model, Peter McEvoy insisted on staying with the smaller one.
A notable addition to the Log came during the latter part of the 1980s when Jimmy McClean, the honorary secretary of Clontarf GC, where I'm a member, suggested I should add a little rules teaser every week. And noticing my early blunders, he advocated that I acquire a copy of the "Decisions on the Rules of Golf" from the R and A.
One of the most enjoyable aspects of doing the Teaser was to have readers castigate me for being wrong. On receipt of such complaints, I would smugly reply that, other than through a mis-print, I simply couldn't be wrong, given that each one was taken out of the Decisions book. And, naturally, there were people who then insisted that the R and A were wrong.
An expansion of my reference books with the help of friends here and in the US, gave birth to "This day in golf history". Then there were the invaluable contributions received from readers who clearly felt I needed help towards improving the quality of this weekly offering.
All in all, it's been terrific fun.
The infallible test
THIS final, extended quote, about the integrity of the game, comes from "Ordeal by Golf" in which PG Wodehouse tells us: "In no other walk of life does the cloven hoof so quickly display itself. .... Golf, my dear fellow, is the infallible test. The man who can go into a patch of rough alone, with the knowledge that only God is watching him, and play his ball where it lies, is the man who will serve you faithfully and well. The man who can smile bravely when his putt is diverted by one of those beastly wormcasts, is pure gold right through. But the man who is hasty, unbalanced, and violent on the links, will display the same qualities in the wider field of everyday life."
Striking the wrong chord
A FAVOURITE piece from recent years, appeared in 1998 and will strike a chord, if that's the appropriate term, with most male golfers. It concerned the sort of injury which men tend to associate with standing on the head of a rake in a bunker, though in this instance, the damage was done by a wayward tee-shot.
As a consequence, actor/director/husband-of-Zeta-something, Michael Douglas, was being sued for $150 million by a caddie in a New York golf club. James Parker (48) alleged that his testicles were permanently damaged by the shot and that the Hollywood star stuffed $50 into his pocket and made an insulting remark while the hapless caddie was being stretchered away.
Interestingly, Douglas claimed that the shot was played by his bodyguard. Indeed Mandy Rice-Davies - "Well, he would. Wouldn't he?" - might have written the script.
Beauty of the Point
This, I submit, is the most beautifully descriptive piece ever written about an Irish golf course and it came not from an Irishman, but, predictably, from the pen of the inimitable Pat Ward-Thomas of the then "Manchester Guardian", during a visit to Rosses Point for the West of Ireland Championship in 1962.
It reads: "Rosses Point is a splendid examination in a setting of well nigh incomparable beauty. The course begins with a stiffish climb, but one as rewarding as any in golf, because from the third tee there is a view unsurpassed in the Isles of Britain. The long ribbons of holes to the distant turn, lie in a basin below and cling to dune and rock until the 17th plunges into the hillside.
"It all lies on a peninsula between the bays of Drumcliff and Sligo; to the north, Ben Bulben rises like the prow of a great ship heading for eternal seas and away to the south is Knocknarea, where the cruel Queen Maeve lies buried high above her Connacht kingdom. The mountains inland appear unbelievably clear beneath cloud-flecked skies and the long, blue line of the Mayo coast stretches far into the Atlantic that has gleamed silver and peaceful in the sunshine."
Putting the LPGA on the map
From the current files, there's a story about Jan Stephenson, whom I saw competing for the Irish Women's Open at Clandeboye in 1984, when American veteran, Kathy Whitworth, triumphed. Colleague, Patricia Davies of "The Times", expressed puzzlement when I mentioned in Killarney last weekend, that I could recall Stephenson wearing mauve on the final day.
I insisted that I wasn't alone among men who tended to remember what Stephenson wore. Indeed when she walked off the 18th green in a recent LPGA tournament, a male spectator in his late forties was heard to comment: "I still have your poster up in my den." This was the famous 1978 poster, which is credited with putting the LPGA on the map - of the glamorous Australian posing in a bath-tub full of golf balls.
And with reference to last week's piece about her LPGA colleague Jill McGill rejecting a six-figure inducement to appear nude in Playboy magazine, Stephenson commented: "I told her that she would be silly not to do it." It happens that after 28 years, this is Stephenson's last full season on Tour, where she won 20 events, including the 1983 US Women's Open.
Meanwhile, Michael Parkinson would probably shudder at this: a rogue emu dashed across a municipal course in North Carolina earlier this week. "He was moving; I mean really moving," said a club employee, who added: "We don't have a lot of experience capturing emus." Now there's a surprise.
This day in golf history
ON May 18th 1951, Rodger Davis was born in Sydney, Australia. Sartorially different, his plus-twos were accompanied by stockings with his name spelt on the side, but through no fault of his own, he is remembered in this country largely in a negative sense. In 1986, he beat Des Smyth in a play-off at Wentworth to capture the PGA Championship. But in the final of the Dunhill Cup two years later, Smyth gained glorious revenge with a crucial win over the Australian who drove out of bounds on the notorious 17th at St Andrews.
TEASER: A takes a rake into a bunker so that he can smooth his footprints after playing from the bunker. He sticks the handle of the rake into the sand prior to playing his stroke. Is this permissible?
ANSWER: No. A was in breach of Rule 13-4 which prohibits testing the condition of a hazard when the ball lies in the hazard.
