During the British Women's Senior Open which was held recently at the Powfoot club near Dumfries, the question of proper golfing attire raised a decidedly interesting response. And it was a great pity that club officials from all over this fair land, weren't present to hear the exchange.
It happened when an elegant Spanish competitor arrived on the first tee dressed in jeans. Yes, those vile garments made from the dreaded serge de Nimes which, however well cut and tailored, are viewed by committees as a threat on the very fabric of their club.
Lewine Mair, the golf correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, was aware of this ban. This led her to tease Ladies' Golf Union officials as to whether they were going to do anything about the denim-clad senora. Would she be asked to change? The answer was no; they would do nothing. Indeed the LGU president, Bridget Jackson gently suggested: "Maybe it's up to us to change."
There is apparently a growing awareness in women's golf that instead of youngsters being encouraged into the game, they're actually being frightened off by outdated rules regarding dress. And it's high time that the game's menfolk had a similar, serious look at the so-called dress code in clubs.
We are all familiar with those golfers who dress down to play the game. They arrive at the club in perfectly respectable garb, only to reappear from the locker-room in the sort of creased, even ragged apparel more associated with gardening. Ah but it's not denim. So everything's fine.
I know of a young woman who had to leave the mixed lounge of a Dublin club at lunchtime, because the honorary secretary considered her to be improperly dressed - in a designer, denim suit. As it happened, she was a university graduate whose reaction was to pity the people who came up with such a rule.
Bridget Jackson is right: it's time for the golfing establishment to change at all levels, but especially with regard to young people for whom denim is almost like a second skin. Neatness of dress should be the requirement. And if that were the case, some male golfers I know, wouldn't get past the front door.
Meanwhile, it's good to note another significant breakthrough for women, almost predictably from across the Atlantic where Judy Bell made history two years ago by becoming the first woman president of the US Golf Association. Now Alice Dye is to be the first woman director of the PGA of America.
The appointment will be confirmed at the association's annual general meeting in New Orleans on November 4th to 7th. It is a richly deserved honour for the 71-year-old who has worked alongside her husband Pete in the design of more than 40 golf courses.
Her great achievement has been to promote manageable layouts for women, by highlighting appropriate, forward-tee locations. "Alice is a recognised authority in golf and will bring an important dynamic to the board," said Ken Lindsay, president of the PGA. Just as Bridget Jackson is bringing to the LGU.
"When you're on top of the world and used to feeling good about your golf, it's not easy to take when you're struggling. But I'm trying to keep my sense of humour." Seve Ballesteros, 116th in the Order of Merit and no longer an invitee at Wentworth, where he won the World Matchplay title a record-equalling five times.
Eleven years ago, land development manager Graham Steel discovered a gifted Fijian golfer, struggling to make a living from a nominal retainer at an obscure Malaysian club. That was where Vijay Singh told three-handicapper Steel about his dream to play in the British Open.
"Getting him to Britain all happened so quickly," Steel recalled, as his protege set about defending the World Matchplay crown at Wentworth yesterday. "It was 1987 and a group of us were having a beer one day when we thought about how we could get him to Muirfield.
"One of the guys offered him a flat; another offered a car and someone else came up with the air tickets. But we hadn't considered the way the wild Scottish weather would affect him. He was shivering like hell and failed to qualify. But he stayed on and at one stage was working as a bouncer in a nightclub."
Now, with world earnings of $1,927,128 so far this year and the major breakthrough of the USPGA Championship to his credit, Singh hasn't forgot- ten those kindnesses. He is repaying his benefactor by helping Steel's son, Iain, a struggling tournament player in the US. As they say, what goes around comes around.
Bob Rosburg, USPGA champion turned television pundit, clearly wasn't enamoured of the course he had just played. Turning to his playing partner he inquired: "Why the hell isn't the flag at half-mast?" "Why do you say that Bob?" "Because with a golf course like that, the greenkeeper's gotta be dead."
Part of the fun at a special media dinner during the Alfred Dunhill Cup each year, is a table quiz with some wickedly tricky questions. And this year was no exception. The two, key questions were: 1 - Name eight winners of major professional championships, men's and women's, with the letter Z in their surname; 2 - Name eight winners of major, men's professional championships whose surname starts with the last letter of their first name e.g. Steve Elkington.
At the time, I came up with only seven in the first category which I have since extended to 10. But I can't find any more than eight in the second category. How about you?
My answers are: 1 - Gene Sarazen, Fuzzy Zoeller, Paul Azinger, Jose-Maria Olazabal, Babe Zaharias, Nancy Lopez, Lee Janzen, Larry Mize, Roberto de Vicenzo and Vic Ghezzi; 2 - Steve Elkington, Fred Daly, Ernie Els, Byron Nelson, Tom Morris Snr, Tom Morris Jnr, Curtis Strange, Lew Worsham.
Rival Scottish newspaper diarists had great fun last week - at least one of them had - regarding the appearance of Hollywood film actor/producer, Michael Douglas in the Alfred Dunhill Cup pro-am at St Andrews. When one diarist claimed that Douglas was staying on so as to trace his Scottish ancestors, a rival commended it as an admirable idea. Except that the real name of Kirk Douglas, Michael's father, happened to be Issur Danielovitch Demsky. Unlikely to have haggis in the veins, one would surmise.
This Day In Golf History . . . . On October 17th 1907, Margaret Curtis beat her older sister Harriot to win the US Women's Amateur Championship at the Midlothian CC, Illinois. It meant that both daughters of businessman Greely S Curtis had captured the title insofar as Harriot won at Brae Burn CC, Massachusetts in 1906, beating Mary Adams by 2 and 1 in the final.
For the first of her three amateur titles, Margaret (27) won the qualifying medal at Midlothian with a 95 and went on to beat her sister by 7 and 6. Four years later at Baltusrol, she regained the title before experiencing the great joy of a third success at Essex CC, her home course, in 1912.
Against that background, it is hardly surprising that the Curtis Cup, named after the two sisters who donated it, had its fourth staging at the Essex club in 1938, when the Americans won. Meanwhile, at 65, Margaret Curtis made the last of 25 appearances in the US Amateur in 1949, losing in the first round.
In Brief: Woodbrook, with its five par-threes, is truly a remarkable course for holes in one. And five-handicapper Fionnan Murray is maintaining the tradition. He informs me he scored his first ace at the 11th recently and only two holes later, his playing partner, Sean Boland (4), holed out a five-iron at the 13th. Boland, with a 75 gross, had 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 on his card but Murray, with a shorter progression of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, had a 73 to win the money.
Teaser: In a match between A and B, A's ball lay in a bunker near the green and B's ball was on the green. B's ball was further from the hole but A played first. B recalled the stroke under Rule 10-1c. In the meantime, A had raked his footprints. Did A incur a penalty?
Answer: If A's ball, played out of turn, came to rest outside the bunker, there was no breach of Rule 13-4b because A's ball was not lying in the bunker when he raked the footprints, i.e. the prohibitions in Rule 13-4 apply only when the player's ball lies in or touches the hazard. If A's ball still lay in the bunker, he was in breach of Rule 13-4 because it must be assumed that the smoothing assisted him in his subsequent play of the hole. Exception 2 to Rule 13-4 exempts the player from penalty for assisting himself in the subsequent play of a hole by smoothing footprints if the ball lies outside the hazard when the smoothing takes place, but not if the ball still lies in the hazard.
