On December 23rd, 1927, two promising 15-year-olds tied for the annual Glen Garden CC Christmas caddies' championship in Fort Worth, Texas. And after he and Ben Hogan had completed nine holes in 39 strokes, Byron Nelson went on to beat his rival by a stroke in a nine-hole play-off, sinking a long putt for a four-over-par 41.

All the caddies then went to a Christmas party, except Hogan. A notorious loner, he couldn't bring himself to raise a glass of cider with the other kids, even at Christmas. Years later, he recalled: "I felt I already had my party when I tied Nelson." But his biographer, Curt Sampson, suggested that if this were true, it was the only occasion when he was satisfied with an eventual second place.

Teaser: A player misses a shot completely and, in swinging his club back, he accidentally knocks his ball backwards. Was the backward swing a stroke? If the ball comes to rest out of bounds, how does the player proceed?

Answer: The backward swing was not a stroke. A stroke is the forward movement of the club made with the intention of fairly striking at, and moving, the ball. In addition to counting the missed stroke, the player incurs a penalty stroke for moving his ball with the backward swing (Rule 18-2a), and the ball must be replaced. The fact that the ball lay out of bounds is irrelevant.

Answers to quiz: 1 The K Club; 2 Monkstown; 3 Royal Co Down; 4 Coollattin; 5 Bray; 6 Malone; 7 Dooks; 8 Grange; 9 Abbeyleix; 10 Hollywood Lakes; 11 Killarney; 12 The European Club; 13 Rush; 14 Banbridge; 15 Bandon; 16 Donegal; 17 Wicklow; 18 Woodstock; 19 Letterkenny; 20 Ballybunion.