Since there are those who would have us believe that we are now on a weekend between two major championships, it may be no harm to have a look at all this "major" business, along with the socalled Grand Slam. Even golf's top television pundit, Johnny Miller, believes that the status of the Players Championship is "getting to be a real issue".

So, we will attempt to throw light on a few things. First, there is the matter of when the Masters became a "major". Opinions vary. There is the view that it dates back to 1942 when, in the last staging of the event before the break for the second World War, Byron Nelson beat Ben Hogan in an 18-hole play-off.

Interestingly, in 1947, Leonard Crawley of the Daily Telegraph acknowledged two American majors - the US Open and the Masters - which meant that the USPGA Championship didn't measure up as far as he was concerned. But the doyen of American golf writers, Herbert Warren Wind, claims that the Masters became a major in 1954 when Hogan lost another play-off, this time to Sam Snead.

Despite the undoubted quality of the TPC at Sawgrass, which is probably the most difficult tournament course anywhere in the world, only the Americans talk seriously about the Players Championship as a potential major. Time may change things, but that's the current position. So we will move on to the Grand Slam.

It first came into the golfing lexicon in 1930, when Bobby Jones won the US Open, British Open, US Amateur and British Amateur titles - the Impregnable Quadrilateral. That's when the notion of four golfing majors took hold. But the realisation that there was unlikely ever to be another amateur to match Jones meant the Grand Slam was certain to change.

That particular change was most clearly defined by the events of 1960. It was when Arnold Palmer won the Masters and US Open before gaining his first experience of links golf in the Canada Cup at Portmarnock. Then he headed to St Andrews for his British Open debut in the centenary staging.

As it happened, he invited Bob Drum, his golf-writing friend from Pittsburgh, along with him on the plane, because Drum's editor didn't consider the British Open sufficiently important to warrant official coverage, even in Palmer's hometown paper. The story goes that during the flight, Palmer happened to ask Drum what the reaction would be if he were to win the British Open and then perhaps the USPGA that year.

We are told that Drum, a man never at a loss for words, replied that it would be the equivalent of Jones' Grand Slam. Whereupon Palmer reportedly declared: "That's what I'll do. I'll win the Grand Slam."

Of course, he didn't. But that fateful conversation between himself and Drum is believed to have given birth to the modern Grand Slam. The one, incidentally, which Tiger Woods would not be completing at Augusta next week were he to capture the Masters. Palmer envisaged it happening in one year. And so it should be.

"It's a game that's very fickle. You can try as hard as you want and sometimes it just doesn't work out."

- Tiger Woods with a gentle warning to those who may think he's a certainty for next week's Masters.

R&A set parole date

Towards the end of last year, I wrote here about Derek Lawrenson and the £184,000 sterling Lambourghini Diablo which he won for a hole-in-one at Mill Ride GC, Berkshire, in May 1998. And how he had forfeited his amateur status by keeping the prize which was sold later for a six-figure sum. And how he was waiting to hear when the Royal and Ancient would be restoring him to the golfing fold.

Well, word has come through from on high. Lawrenson, recently-appointed golf correspondent of the Daily Mail, will be reinstated in June 2003. The R and A informed him: "In your particular case, your breach of the Rules of Amateur Status is considered to be a serious breach . . . Such a breach results in a period awaiting reinstatement of five years." The letter was signed by David Rickham, rules secretary of the R and A and copies were sent to the PGA, the English Golf Union and the Warwickshire Union of Golf Clubs (Lawrenson is a member of Moor Hall GC in Sutton Coldfield).

Record tramliner

Outrageous 60-foot putts found the target at Sawgrass last weekend for Darren Clarke on the eighth and Tiger Woods on the 17th. But how do these efforts compare with the longest putt ever holed in a serious competition? The answer is, not very well.

We remember the 50-foot putt which Costantino Rocca holed on the 18th at St Andrews before going on to lose a playoff to John Daly in the 1995 British Open. But it is another Old Course putt, almost three times that length, which claims the record.

According to the Golf Digest Almanac, Robert Cook of California holed a 140-footer during the International Fourball Pro-Am at St Andrews in October 1976. The book, incidentally, did not recognise putts from off the green or on double greens.

Phoenix Smyth

Des Smyth was surrounded by golfing friends last Tuesday night when cheques totalling £547,000 were disbursed to various charities by the Links Golfing Society. Through the formidable, persuasive powers of Links secretary Cecil Whelan, the setting was the splendid Phoenix Park residence of US Ambassador Michael Sullivan, where the recent winner of the Madeira Open was officiating as president of the society.

By way of highlighting the value of golfing friends, Smyth said: "One of them convinced me that I should play in Madeira rather than go to the events in South America." And Ronan Collins spoke for most of us when, pointing to the remarkably fit-looking 48-year-old, he chided: "Would you look at him - Europe's oldest tournament winner."

Ambassador Sullivan, who is almost as keen a golf enthusiast as his former boss, President Clinton, will soon be departing these shores. And by way of a farewell gift, Smyth presented him with Gold Club Membership of the Links.

Taxing behaviour

Now here's an interesting idea which might find appeal in Europe. Mind you, it will mean reduced rewards for Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington and the other competitors in the NEC Invitational at Firestone next August.

The city of Akron, Ohio, have passed a municipal tax law whereby all monies earned by a non-resident athlete or entertainer in their fair city will carry a two-per-cent tariff. So, the winner at Firestone will be leaving behind $20,000 of his $1 million cheque.

This day in golf history

On March 31st, 1985, Calvin Peete carded a closing 66 for a winning aggregate of 274 in the Players Championship at Sawgrass. Interestingly, Tiger Woods compiled precisely the same aggregate with a closing 67 on the same, Stadium Course last Monday.

As it happened, Peete was one of the first black players to make a serious impact on the US scene, which he did despite a malformed left arm, the legacy of a broken elbow when he was a child.

Teaser: In a match, A putted to within three inches of the hole and then knocked his ball away. B, the opponent, objected. He stated that he wanted A's ball left by the hole. A and B were uncertain how to resolve the matter, so they agreed to consider the hole halved. Should A and B be disqualified under Rule 1-3?

Answer: No. There was no agreement to waive the rules. Rather, the players were ignorant of the rules.