GOLFING LOG/Dermot Gilleece: On February 1st, 1967, two months before the great event, a typewritten letter addressed to Joe Carr arrived at Suncroft, his home in Sutton

Originating at 75 Poplar Street NW, Atlanta 3, Georgia, it began: "Dear Joe - To my great delight I have just found on my desk your letter to Cliff Roberts saying that you will play in the Masters this year." And in spidery handwriting, it carried the signature "Bob Jones" .

The letter went on: "Please be assured that it will give us all, especially me, much pleasure to welcome you. I hope you will have your game in the best possible condition and that we may be able to cause you to have a good time. With best regards ..."

By that time, Christy O'Connor Snr, as an ever-present member of the British and Irish Ryder Cup team, had turned down several invitations to compete at Augusta. So it was that Carr, who happened to be the reigning South of Ireland champion, became this country's first representative in the Masters.

As a successful businessman, he didn't have the financial concerns which inhibited O'Connor. And as a guest of Augusta National, he stayed at the top of the clubhouse in the Crow's Nest, just as another British Amateur winner, Garth McGimpsey, would do almost 20 years later.

"I learned I had got a special invitation from Cliff Roberts (the notoriously authoritarian club chairman)," he recalled this week. "And on arrival, I also accepted the offer of club membership, which I relinquished after five years. Though I could afford it at the time, the annual subscription of about $7,500 was difficult to justify for what was generally only a yearly visit."

He went on: "For the first year, they did me the honour of being paired in the opening round with the defending champion, Jack Nicklaus. And lo and behold, I shot 76,74 against Jack's 72,79 which meant that I qualified and he didn't.

"Then the next year, my opening partner was Arnold Palmer. And on that occasion, I shot 75,73 as against 72,79 from Arnold, with the result that I made the cut and Arnold didn't. The upshot was that when we sat down to eat on that Friday night, Roberts said: 'Well, now, we're thinking of inviting Carr back next year, but who in the name of God will play with him?' So they gave me Sam Snead in 1969 and neither of us qualified."

Carr, who played in three Masters, recalled the visits he would make to Bobby Jones - who was in the advanced stages of a crippling back illness, syringomyelia - and his wife Mary in their private cabin. And how, of one such occasion Mary had asked him how he had played. "Before I had a chance to answer, Bob interjected, 'Mary, if Joe had done well, he would have told you long ago.' As it happened, I had just shot an 84."

"He bore his illness with astonishing grace," Carr added. "Indeed he was as excited as the rest of us when Ben Hogan bade a spectacular farewell to the event in 1967." On the third day, the entire course was electrified as The Hawk, at 54, recaptured much of his old magic when covering the back nine in 30 strokes for a magnificent 66.

"I've never seen anything like the excitement," said the Dubliner. "Everybody, including myself, went out on the course when we heard what he was doing. I remember he had to hole an awkward putt on the 18th for his 30, but he managed to get it in. It was one of the most spectacular scenes I have ever witnessed in golf."

"There isn't a single hole out there which can't be birdied if you think. But there isn't one that can't be double-bogeyed if you ever stop thinking."

- Bobby Jones on the challenge of Augusta National.

McGinley's excitement

Paul McGinley will be imbued with a sense of history when getting his first sight of Augusta National this weekend. Though offered numerous invitations to play the course, he deliberately rejected them so that when he had earned it, his competitive debut there would be suitably special.

"I wanted everything to be fresh - the drive up Magnolia Lane, entering the clubhouse, seeing the course" he said yesterday. "On a private visit, I wouldn't have had what I'm told is the unique atmosphere of the Masters. And despite everything that I've seen of it on television, I want to be surprised."

McGinley went on: "I expect to see a huge amount of colour. But most of all, I want to experience the history of the place. That is why I always love going to St Andrews. I can't understand people talking dismissively of the Old Course. Sure, players are entitled not to like it, but one has to admire its uniqueness.

"I have seen photographs of Augusta at the construction stage, when much of the land was bare, compared with the wonderful transformation that mature pine trees have made. It makes me feel I would love to come back in 100 years' time and see the same sort of change at The K Club and at other, new Irish courses."

He concluded: "On certain courses like Grange and Sunningdale, where I now play, you are struck by the wonderful foresight of the people who were there at the beginning, a century ago. I expect Augusta National to be like that."

The Island's boldness

Whatever the location, quality comes at a price, whether it be on rich, mature parkland or on the bold linkland of north Dublin. So, those who guide the fortunes of The Island are to be commended on a decision to spend almost €1 million on course development over the next three to five years.

And the method of payment? A large part of it will come from taking in 26 new, fully-fledged ordinary members, who won't have to go through the five-day process. The entrance fee? With boldness to match their terrain, The Island have set a figure of €20,000. And all application forms have been whipped up.

Sad for Ballesteros

All great venues provide stories of great sadness. And at Augusta, one that retains a particular poignancy for me is the failure of Seve Ballesteros in the 1986 Masters, when he should have won the title for a third time. As the pioneer of remarkable European dominance, he deserved the honour.

"In 1985, my father got very sick," he recalled. "Then, shortly before he died in March 1986, I told him I would win the Masters for him. But I couldn't fulfil that promise. For that reason, it remained what I wanted most from golf."

Ballesteros was leading by two strokes as he faced a four-iron second shot to the long 15th on the Sunday afternoon. But in attempting a fade, he smothered the shot and dumped the ball in the water, so opening the door through which Jack Nicklaus surged to an astonishing sixth title.

This day in golf history ...

On April 6th, 1958, Arnold Palmer captured the US Masters, his first major title, with an aggregate of 284. The final round was especially interesting in that in the wake of torrential, overnight rain, competitors were permitted to lift, clean and drop an embedded ball through the green, in other words anywhere on the course except in a hazard. As it happened, Palmer's tee-shot at the treacherous, short 12th became embedded in a bank above a greenside bunker from where he hacked out the ball for a double-bogey five. He then played a second ball, in accordance with Rule 3-3, and proceeded to make a par. The committee later ruled that his par with the second ball stood, so giving him victory by a stroke over Doug Ford and Fred Hawkins.

Teaser: In fourball strokeplay, A holed out in four. B, A's partner, who was lying three and had marked and lifted his ball, forgot he had a handicap stroke. He did not replace his ball and hole out, or pick up his ball-marker. On the way to the next teeing ground, B remembered his stroke, returned to the green, replaced his ball where it previously lay and holed out for a net three. Was this is order?

Answer: Yes, since B had not played from the next teeing ground (Rule 3-2).