How many times have you been out in your Saturday morning fourball and one of your playing partners sulked his way around the course and moaned and groaned about his game?

Or how many times have you turned on the television set to see one of the world's top players stubbornly refusing to break into a smile, even though he's just hole a 30-footer?

All of us, from club handicapper to top touring professional, are inclined to take the game far too seriously. But, basically, playing golf is supposed to be about enjoying ourselves and, in fact, last Wednesday evening's Past Champions Challenge at St Andrews brought home a few home truths.

Some of the younger generation, Nick Faldo apart, didn't know whether to treat it as a serious competition or to have fun. The older guys - Lee Trevino, Sam Snead et al - knew exactly what to do . . . have fun. And there is a lighter side to the whole golf game, as some of the following tales would indicate.

Business On The Side

The golfer's wife was hoovering the bedroom when she hit something under the bed and, naturally enough, she pulled the object out to discover it was a silver box containing nine golf balls and £25,000 in cash.

When her husband arrived home, she asked: "Pat, what's with the shiny silver box? There's nine golf balls and a lot of cash in here."

"Well," replied her husband, "every time we had a row, I put a golf ball in there."

"That's not bad," said his wife. "We've been married for 25 years and there are only nine balls. But what's with all the money?"

"Well, every time I got a dozen . . . I sold them," he answered.

Wrong Number

Mick had decided to play golf on Saturday even though his wife had wanted to go shopping and, around the turn, his guilty conscience got the better of him. So, he raced into the clubhouse to make a quick call home.

"Hi, darling, it's daddy," said Mick after a little girl answered. "Is your mam near the phone?"

"No, dad," she replied. "Mam's upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Frank."

"But you haven't got an Uncle Frank," said a confused Mick.

"Yes I do, and he is upstairs in the bedroom with mam."

"Okay, then, here's what you do," said Mick. "Put down the phone, run upstairs and knock on the bedroom door and shout to your mother that my car has just pulled up outside the house."

A few minutes later, the little girl came back to the phone in tears.

"What happened?" asked Mick.

"Well, my mammy jumped out of bed with no clothes on and ran around screaming, then she tripped over the rug and fell out the front window and now she's rolling around the garden in pain."

"Oh my God, what about Uncle Frank?"

"He hopped out of bed with no clothers on too, and jumped out the back window into the swimming pool. But he must have forgot that last week you took out all the water to clean it, so he hit the bottom of the pool and I think he's dead."

"Swimming pool?" asked Mick. "Is this 177-9999?"

Left-Hand Drive

A husband and wife were sitting in silence in the clubhouse bar when, suddenly, the wife turned to him and asked: "Darling, if I pass away, would you give your next wife my £5,000 diamond ring?"

"Of course I would," he replied. "I wouldn't want to see it go to waste."

The wife then asked: "Would you give her my new mink coat?"

"Of course I would," he said. "I wouldn't like to see it lying in the wardrobe forever."

His wife had one more question. "And would you give her my set of Callaways you bought for me last week?"

"Of course not," said her husband. "She's left-handed."

Mission Impossible

A golfer, known as Speedy Jack to his friends because of how fast he normally plays the game, stands on the first tee of his local club and, much to the surprise of his companions, takes an inordinate amount of time to set-up.

"What's the problem? Why are you taking so long?" asked his friend.

"Well, my mother-in-law is looking out at me from the window of the clubhouse," replied Jack.

"You're crazy," said his friend, shaking his head. "You will never hit her from here!"