Sport

Sole survivor

The recent death of his older brother, Mike, at 93, means that Willie Turnesa is the sole survivor of a remarkable family

Sat Nov 18 2000 - 00:00

The recent death of his older brother, Mike, at 93, means that Willie Turnesa is the sole survivor of a remarkable family. Of the seven golfing sons born to an Italian immigrant who landed in New York in 1889, Willie, the youngest, was the only one not to turn professional. They learned the game at the Fairview Country Club, where their father worked as a labourer.

Willie, now 86, acquired the sobriquet "The Wedge" for his proficiency with that club, and will be remembered by more mature Irish enthusiasts as runner-up to Max McCready in the final of the British Amateur at Portmarnock in 1949. One of his victims was Clontarf's Vincent Herlihy, a member of a prominent Irish golfing family, whom Turnesa beat in the third round.

In a one-hole semi-final victory over EB Millward of Parkstone, Turnesa was reputed to have shot an approximate 71 after missing almost every fairway. But he couldn't find a way of avoiding a 2 and 1 defeat by McCready in the 36-hole final. Still, there was ample compensation in a distinguished career which included several important victories, including the US Amateur of 1938 and 1948 and the British Amateur of 1947.

This Day In Golf History . . . On November 18th, 1936, Brian Huggett, one of the finest players to emerge from Wales, was born in Porthcawl. Small of stature and known as the "Welsh Toy Bulldog", Huggett was a doughty competitor who played six times in the Ryder Cup. The most notable of these was the 1969 clash at Royal Birkdale where, after holing a five-foot putt to halve his match with Billy Casper, he broke down in tears, thinking his result had secured a British and Irish triumph. As it happened, the overall result was a tie.

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Teaser: In playing from a bunker, a player touches a bare earth wall of the bunker with his club on his backswing. What is the ruling?

Answer: The player touched the ground in the hazard in breach of Rule 13-4b. The note to Rule 13-4 permits a player's club to touch an obstruction (such as an artificial wall) on his backswing. However, an earth wall of a bunker is not an artificial wall.