Golf's generous sprinkling of characters frequently come to the rescue of the overwrought scribe, descending like manna from heaven to offer an interesting slant to a tired story. And the current staging of the European Tour Final Qualifying School brings to mind the significant contribution of one such individual to events at San Roque three years ago.

Since he turned 50 last April 26th, I've been wondering when Mac O'Grady, who has raised sporting ambidexterity to amazing heights, would make an appearance on the US Seniors Tour. His last official tournament in the US was the John Deere Classic on the "regular" tour in July 1999, when he was 82nd.

So, where is he? "He's out in the Thunderbird Country Club in Palm Springs hitting balls each day until sunset," said his erstwhile manager Dick Siderowf, the former British Amateur champion. "But there's no point in trying to reach him: he won't come to the phone. I haven't spoken to him in five years, but I understand from a friend that he's planning to qualify for the Seniors Tour playing left handed."

Siderowf, who described his association with O'Grady as "a dollar a year manager", went on to suggest: "Mac has always been a gadfly. He can play as well as ever, but is totally unmanageable." One tended to suspect O'Grady had been crafted from a somewhat different mould than the average eccentric after he once observed earnestly: "I hope to maximise the efficiency ratio of my management resources."

Leading US sports writer, Art Spander, described him as "a jerk to some, a genius to others and merely a fascinating individual to most". His story is an intriguing one. Born one of seven children in Minneapolis in 1951, he was christened Phil McGlenno but changed his name to Philip McClelland O'Grady in 1978. McClelland was taken from a certain Bob McClelland, who had been like a father to him for years, and O'Grady is the maiden-name of his mother, who died when he was 15.

When his father remarried, young Phil ran away from home, sleeping in dustbins and church doorways. Excellent athletic skills, however, were matched by dogged determination, as evidenced by the fact he went through the US Qualifying School no fewer than 17 times before eventually making it in 1982. He won the Greater Hartford Open in 1986 and the Tournament of Champions in 1987.

Eleven years on, in November 1998 at San Roque, he rounded on European golfers as foul-mouthed, club-throwing, line-stepping, boorish morons, devoid of courtesy or etiquette. "Every hole it was eff-this and eff-you," he said. "They were jumping on lines, jumping over lines, spitting on greens and throwing clubs. No one said 'good shot' or 'good putt'. Every hole it was the same." Then he said of his one-time pupil, Seve Ballesteros: "If I had a sword, I would cut his head off. He sacked his caddie, Billy Foster (now with Darren Clarke) at the 1995 US Masters, where Billy should have won the Nobel Peace Prize. He (Billy) is bright, lucid, almost a genius who should pilot the next shuttle to the moon."

Putting left-handed but hitting all the other clubs right-handed, O'Grady won the 28th card at San Roque but made only five tournament appearances in Europe in 1999, missing the cut on each occasion. He then became a recluse in typically contradictory circumstances, hitting balls at a plush country club.

"If you try to develop a personality, you'd better have the record to back it up, otherwise you get labelled as being crazy."

- Mac O'Grady.