Vijay Singh, winner of the Honda Classic last month, dominates the cover of the current issue of Minority Golf magazine in the United States. Inside, it is claimed justifiably that he and his male and female colleagues from minority groups are making a highly significant contribution to the American professional game.

Last August, the 36-year-old made the breakthrough of capturing the USPGA Championship in Seattle. As a Fijian, however, Singh does not qualify for inclusion among the "Top-10 American Minority Golfers of the 20th Century." They are, in order: 1, Lee Trevino; 2, Nancy Lopez; 3, Tiger Woods; 4, Calvin Peete; 5, Charlie Sifford; 6, Pete Brown; 7, Lee Elder; 8, Chi Chi Rodriguez; 9, Ted Rhodes; 10, Bill Spiller.

Though a few of these may not be familiar to Irish readers, their impact has nonetheless been enormous. For instance, Brown was the first black American to win an official USPGA Tour event - the 1964 Waco Turner Open. And Rhodes, who shot an opening 70 in the 1948 US Open, won more than 150 tournaments, mostly on the United Golfers Association tour, which was once the only place black players could ply their craft.

Finally, it was Spiller who, with the aid of California's attorney general Stanley Mosk, started the litigation which eventually forced the PGA of America to rescind its "Caucasianonly" rule in 1961. And it was also during the 1960s that Althea Gibson, the former tennis champion, became the first black member of the LPGA Tour.

It was a very different situation back in 1928, when the national Public Links tournament in Philadelphia was sponsored by the US Golf Association. On the third day, Robert "Pat" Ball, a black golfer from Chicago, and playing companion Elmer Stout were disqualified from competing.

The two men obtained a temporary injunction that prevented the tournament from proceeding. When USGA officials realised the implications of this, Ball and Stout were reinstated. Then, having made their point, the two men formally withdrew. Ten years later, black players in Kansas City were still restricted to a nine-hole course.

Woods has obviously been an invaluable standard-bearer for the minority cause. From a competitive standpoint, however, he has some way to go before displacing Lee Trevino at the top of the list, given the six major championships and 55 official USPGA Tour events which have been captured by Supermex.

But golf for non-whites is extremely well served at the moment by such as Isao Aoki, Jim Dent and the LPGA Rookie of 1998, Se Ri Pak, quite apart from Woods and Singh. The most recent addition is Mexico's Esteban Toledo, who has won almost $500,000 since regaining exempt status at the end of the 1997 season.

Meanwhile, as a most sporting and appealing winner of 48 LPGA Tour events, Lopez has been a wonderful role model for non-white women players. In the process, she emulated her male counterpart Trevino by becoming the first woman minority player to capture a major title - the 1978 LPGA Championship.

In terms of firsts, however, Charlie Sifford was in a class apart. Not only was he the first black American to be awarded an approved tournament player's card by the USPGA in 1960, he was also the first to become a playing professional member four years later, though Brown got to the winner's rostrum before him.

They and their colleagues learned that a heavy price had to be paid before it was accepted that black could also be beautiful where striking a golf-ball was concerned.

"Everywhere I've gone, people have dismissed me as a guy who probably isn't good enough, so every rung of the ladder has been kind of special to me." Fifty-year-old former Walker Cup player Allen Doyle after capturing the USPGA Seniors' Championship last Sunday.

Francis Spatcher was recounting recently a rather interesting experience he had while playing with a golfing colleague at the Forest Park course in Brooklyn, New York. "I teed off on the fourth hole and hit a pretty good drive down the fairway," said Spatcher. "As I approached my ball, a lady emerged out of the woods."

Not surprisingly, he had a rapt audience as he went on: "She looked my golf ball over and then proceeded to hit it. Somewhat curious, I approached the lady and said: `Madam, I believe you hit my ball.' Whereupon she eyed me indignantly and snapped: `Well, I couldn't find mine."

IT IS entirely understandable that the good people at Pinehurst number two should have been rather miffed at never getting the chance of staging the US Open. So, they hit upon an irresistible idea: they rebuilt their greens to US Golf Association specifications. (For agronomical philistines, that's a process involving a layering of materials in the subsurface, aimed at producing healthy turf which drains satisfactorily).

Anyway, the upshot is that from June 17th to 20th, the universally acclaimed Donald Ross creation will become the first US Open course with greens built to USGA specifications. It will also be the first staging of the championship on new, extremely quick G-2 bentgrass, which was planted in 1996.

All of which has led to a veritable spate of visits from leading contenders, including Tiger Woods, who was there last week prior to competing at Harbour Town. "The greens have changed dramatically since the Tour Championship was here (in 1991 and 1992)," said Paul Jett, greens superintendent at Pinehurst number two.

He then warned: "Golf balls will be rolling off the (convex) greens all day long. If I were playing in the US Open, I would aim at the middle of every green. From there, I would never have a birdie putt longer than 30 feet." Which effectively means that the organisers plan to defend the course the same way that Augusta National have been doing for years - through fiendishly difficult greens.

WHATEVER about their prospects of regaining the Ryder Cup at Brookline next September, the US team would appear to be clear favourites in the sartorial stakes. Word here in America is that the players will wear $4,000 suits, handmade in the US. Indeed we are assured that the apparel will be of such superior cut and quality as to make prospective team members with the shape of Tim "Lumpy" Herron, look good.

GREG NORMAN sailed out of Harbour Town after the MCI Classic last weekend, bound for Mexico and a fishing holiday. His performance in the tournament, in which he finished with a six-over-par aggregate of 290, had been decidedly moderate. But he won the marina battle hands down.

Dominating the waterfront was Countach, the corporate hospitality cruiser leased by the tournament sponsors. Closeby was Chevy Toy, a 118-foot yacht owned by Gene Reed, a wealthy car dealer from Charleston, along with the 110-foot My Weigh.

But at 142-feet long, Norman's new acquisition - named Aussie Rules after the cruiser it replaced - was too big for the marina and had to be anchored in Calibogue Sound from where Norman was ferried each day on his centre-console dinghy. For you landlubbers, this is a 200-horsepower inflatable, capable of speeds in excess of 50 m.p.h.

On his last visit to Harbour Town in 1996, a few days after a disastrous US Masters collapse against Nick Faldo, Norman had an 86-foot Monterey sports fishing boat also named Aussie Rules. Now, in addition to its replacement, he has also acquired a new, 61-foot sports-fisher The Medallist, which he will be using in Mexico this week. It is named after the course he designed near his home in Hobe Sound, Florida.

Meanwhile, Norman's only tournament appearance in Europe this season will be in the British Open at Carnoustie. But prior to the Scottish trip, there will be a working visit to Doonbeg where he is designing a high-profile links - assuming a solution is found for the future of the rare snails, indigenous to the area.

This day in golf history . . . On April 24th 1976, Ireland's Eddie Polland, who was tied 46th in the USPGA Seniors' Open last weekend, shot a final round of 70 to win the Spanish Open by two strokes from Australia's Bob Shearer at La Manga. Top prize of £4,070 came as a timely boost to the Ulsterman, who had undergone surgery in South Africa that February for a wrist injury which had plagued him over the previous 12 months.

Shearer and the 27-year-old holder of the trophy, Salvador Balbuena, had led after 54 holes but failed to maintain the momentum on the final day. Meanwhile, a promising young Spaniard named Severiano Ballesteros, earned £966.62 for a share of sixth place.

Teaser: A player's ball lies off the putting green, overhanging but not touching the green. A clump of mud adhering to the ball touches the green. Is the ball considered to be on the green?

Answer: No. However, if a ball lies on the green but does not actually touch the green because it is perched on mud, the ball is considered to be on the green.