THE YOUNG golfer was seriously over-stretching his scant resources by staying at a plush hotel on Spain's Costa del Sol. So it wasn't especially surprising to see him at breakfast slipping a few bread-rolls and ham under a morning newspaper for sandwiches that would save him the price of a meal later in the day.
That was during the Qualifying School in 1993 when, with his sister caddying for him, Van Phillips failed to secure a European Tour player's card. He is unlikely to be faced again with such privation, after capturing the Portuguese Open at Penina last Sunday. But he is among a very fortunate few.
His breakfast antics of six years ago were observed by Peter McEvoy, who has embarked on something of a one-man crusade of dissuading young players from ill-conceived entry into professional ranks. "I think it's incumbent on me to point out the problems," said the current Walker Cup captain.
With typical thoroughness, McEvoy points to some sobering statistics about the prospects of success. For instance, the last of the 116 players in the Order of Merit to retain their cards at the end of last season, received £52,813 in official money. To earn that, he had to spend about £30,000 in expenses. So, his net take was little more than £22,000.
McEvoy then explained: "Of those 116 players, 52 were from Britain and Ireland, ranging in age from 20 to 46. So we had 26 years' worth of players there. In rough terms, that leaves room for an average of only two players per year from these islands out of the hundreds seeking a card. It's frightening."
He went on: "My concern is what happens to the rest. For a few years, they compete in what I would describe as artificially created, mop-up tours, which are no more than glorified sweeps. Ultimately, they become totally dispirited and are lost to the game.
"I remember a time when there was merit in the amateur ethos, but nowadays young golfers apparently see themselves as failures if they don't turn professional. Look at the struggle of Justin Rose, who was undoubtedly the most talented young player I have ever seen.
"Contrary to common belief, he and his father had decided on a professional career before his (British) Open exploits at Royal Birkdale last July. I know, because I had earlier spoken to them and advised Justin to wait three years. Now he is struggling desperately simply to make his first cut."
The 45-year-old, who was twice British Amateur champion, concluded: "If I'm to be a lone voice crying in the wilderness, so be it. Somebody has to do it. All I know is that it's high time we acknowledged the reality of a major crisis in the game."
"The only ambition I've left in golf - and I'll admit it's a tall order - is to win in the next millennium. It would be a record that might never be broken, because you've got to live that long, you've got to have nerves and you've got to be pretty damn lucky." - Gary Player, who has won in each of the last five decades.
IT WAS destined to be controversial, given that Seve Ballesteros was responsible for the design. And so it proved to be during the 1997 Ryder Cup, when it was the scene of Phil Mickelson's win over Darren Clarke, before Bernhard Langer gained a crucial European point by beating Brad Faxon there later that day.
Now, the 571-yard, parfive 17th at Valderrama is to be reduced to a 450-yard par four. Renovation work begins in June so that it will be suitably mature for the inaugural WGC American Express Championship on November 4th to 7th.
Tees on either side of the fairway will be moved forward; obtrusive fairway humps will be flattened; the highly controversial strip of rough crossing the fairway about 170 yards from the green will be removed and fairway bunkers will be relocated so as to be brought into play.
Finally, the green is to be deeper and flatter so as to allow players to attack the pin without fear of approach shots spinning back into the water hazard to the front. Indeed when the work is completed, Seve won't recognise it - which, I suspect, is the intention of the owner, Jaime Patino.
FROM one of my regular dips into Bill Elliott's delightful book This Sporting Life: Golf, I give you
this story about Henry Longhurst, as recounted by golf writer Mark Wilson. Longhurst, it seems, had decided he was going to die on a Friday and on the previous day, he and "a very famous person" got paralytic on champagne.
Says Wilson: "As they said goodbye - and each knew it was really goodbye - this chap asked Henry if he would let him know if the grass was really greener on the other side." This same man was at a function in Leeds a year later when a woman, who introduced herself as a psychic, came up to him. She proceeded to tell him she had a message from someone called Henry - she didn't know the surname. He had asked her to pass on the fact that the grass was greener.
Wilson concludes: "The famous person was so taken aback that he had to return to his hotel." Though Wilson would not confirm it, Elliott believes the "famous person" to have been Sir Douglas Bader.
WE IN the IT golf department experienced a special glow on hearing of Aonghus McAnally's remarkable victory in a recent Stableford competition at St Margaret's. After all, two of the clubs he used, a Callaway seven wood and a Cobra "Soft Lady" putter, came courtesy of a consumer series he did for our Tuesday supplement last season.
His score of 36 points, off 10, looked fairly ordinary. In horrific conditions, however, it was good enough to win by the crushing margin of 11 strokes, which must be something of a record. "I was amazed: my hope at the time was that I might have an outside chance of winning," he said. But what really pleased him was being cut from 9.7 to 9.3 (exact), so returning him to a single-figure handicap.
Meanwhile, I can claim a personal connection with the Piel Cup Fourball victory by past captain Art McGann (off 12) and Trinity student Mark Murnane (5) at Royal Dublin last weekend. As a young dentist, back in 1954, McGann filled my teeth. Now 74 and retired, he applies the same, deft touch to an enduring golf game. Their V-par score? An admirable seven-up.
"IT JUST blows my mind - I don't like to see that stuff happen." Greg Norman, who gets into this year's US Masters under a new qualification for the top-50 in the world rankings, was bemoaning the introduction of rough to Augusta National.
The Shark explained: "I don't like to see it because I like to step up on the tee and say `Gene Sarazen did this or Byron Nelson did this', and feel the same piece of nostalgia and history. When you change it, you change all that."
A more pragmatic view, however, came from Augusta's supreme competitor, Jack Nicklaus. "You have to use the same equipment for it to be the same thing," said the Bear. "If they could allow us to hit a golf ball only so far, then I think they shouldn't change a thing. But if you look at the course (Augusta) that I shot 64 on in 1965, it's not the same golf course."
This day in golf history . . . On March 13th, 1977, Liam Higgins shot a level-par final round of 71 to capture top prize of £2,098 in the Kenya Open at Muthaiga GC, Nairobi. In the process, he beat Christy O'Connor Snr by two strokes into a share of fourth place, while Eddie Polland was a further two strokes back, tied eighth.
Three months later, the Waterville professional captured the Kerrygold International for a second time on his home course. And he went on to share 18th place, with amateur Mick Morris among others, behind Hubert Green in the Irish Open at Portmarnock. Higgins ended the season with European Tour earnings of £7,523 for 58th position in the Order of Merit.
In Brief: This year's Hermitage Women's Scratch Cup, sponsored by Statoil, will be played on Sunday, May 2nd.
TEASER: A player plays a stroke at his ball which is lying in a large area of ground under repair. The player advances the ball but not far enough to get it out of the ground under repair. The ball cannot be found. What is the ruling?
ANSWER: The player may drop a ball outside the ground under repair area, without penalty, as provided in Rule 25-1c. Alternatively, the player may, under penalty of one stroke, drop a ball in the ground under repair as near as possible to the spot from which his original ball was last played. (Rule 27-1 - Lost ball).
