It's never pleasant to be found out in a mistake. Acknowledging one's fallibility becomes very much easier, however, when the error is pointed out with courtesy and understanding. As in the e-mail I received this week from Dr Joseph Manda in the US.

Six months after the event, Dr Manda informed me that in reporting the record, 15-stroke victory by Tiger Woods in the US Open at Pebble Beech, I suggested, erroneously, that the biggest previous winning margin was seven strokes by Jim Barnes back in 1921. It should have been nine strokes. And one could understand Dr Manda's concern, given that Barnes happened to be his grandfather.

At this time when the US presidency is very much in the news at home and abroad, he also made the point that Barnes was the only US Open winner to whom the trophy was presented by a US President, who happened to be Warren Harding. And I can add the little nugget that to honour Harding, there was also a US Marine band, which insisted on rehearsing noisily while competitors were at critical stages of the final round.

We are informed, however, that Barnes was untroubled by their playing, as he completed a two-over-par closing 72 at Columbia CC for an aggregate of 289 and a nine-stroke victory over no less a figure than Walter Hagen, who tied Fred McLeod for second place. The winning cheque was $500. Born in Lelant, Cornwall, in 1887, Barnes emigrated to the US in 1906 but never relinquished British citizenship. Indeed the crowning glory of his career was to capture the 1925 British Open when it was played at Prestwick for the last time. Noted for his composure, he was given to clenching blades of grass between his teeth in the heat of battle.

As Dr Manda informed me: "Jim Barnes was a great man, an incredible golfer and the best grandfather a grandson ever had." He died in New Jersey on May 24th, 1966.