On first visiting Cypress Point GC in 1981 for the Walker Cup, my eye was caught by a classic, old Mercedes in the club car park. And I remember thinking that its owner must be a person of some style. It transpired the car belonged to Hank Ketcham, creator of the comic-strip character "Dennis the Menace". About 18 months later, prior to the 1983 Pebble Beach Pro-Am, Ketcham's bottle of champagne helped create the mood whereby a dinner party of six, including Tom Watson, set off in darkness for the short 17th. There, using an imaginary hole, the group tried to re-create Watson's famous chip-in which effectively sealed victory in the 1982 US Open at Pebble.

Ketcham died recently, aged 81. A keen golfer for 60 years, he was a member of Cypress Point and the Royal and Ancient and had a home in the Pebble Beach area of the Monterey Peninsula.