After dinner in the Greywalls Hotel on July 20th 1980, Ben Crenshaw went back out onto the sacred sward of Muirfield. Earlier that day, he had finished third behind Tom Watson in the 109th British Open and was now determined to play a few more holes with a gutty ball and five wooden-shafted clubs which he had acquired that week.

The little adventure that ensued is recalled on this, Watson's 50th birthday, by way of illustrating the sharply contrasting nature of the two players. The acquisition of the old clubs and ball was typical of Crenshaw the traditionalist, while the fierce competitiveness of Watson was evident in his reaction.

In the company of a few friends, Crenshaw arrived on the 10th tee where the champion teed the gutty for him on a little pile of sand, as was the custom 100 years previously. Meanwhile, Watson's wife, Linda, organised a lone piper to accompany the intrepid golfers into the gathering dusk.

Walking up the fairway to the sound of the bagpipes, Crenshaw hit his second shot into the rough, where the gutty was found to be damaged. He then took the liberty of using a modern ball for his third shot to the green, from where he got down in two more for a bogey five.

By the time his compatriot had completed the 10th, however, Watson could contain himself no longer. Desperate to lay his hands on the old clubs, he challenged Crenshaw to a duel down the par-four 18th, which runs parallel, back towards the hotel. Obviously he felt the need to unwind after the tension of battling for the title, just as Jack Nicklaus had done at the same venue in 1966, except that the Bear settled for a vigorous, one-hour tennis match on the hotel court.

So it was that the two players hit their tee shots with a baffy and proceeded towards the green, with the help of a mid-iron, mashie and mashie-niblick. Along the way, Watson claimed a significant advantage by getting within 70 yards of the target in two, while his rival took two to escape from a bunker as a result of using an implement ill-suited to the purpose.

Eventually, like errant schoolboys trespassing by twilight, they completed the hole, Watson winning with a five to a six. As was his way back then, he had got up and down from behind the green for a bogey, sinking a seven-foot putt in the process. Whereupon golf's most feared club secretary arrived on the scene, his face like thunder. Irate that they should take such liberties, Captain PWT Hanmer RN (retd) promptly chased them off the hallowed turf and back to their hotel.

This was four years after Crenshaw had ensured the success of the revived Irish Open by capturing the title at Portmarnock, and a year before Watson would make a different but equally telling impact on Irish golf through his first visit to Ballybunion.

Today, while Watson contemplates the challenge of competing on the US Senior Tour, Crenshaw fills the role of Ryder Cup captain, which his friend discharged with such distinction at The Belfry in 1993. And next February, the Stanford psychology graduate, who has made a study of the underprivileged in California and has taken an interest in the troubles in Northern Ireland, will become the millennium captain of Ballybunion.

What, in heaven's name, we may ask, would Hanmer make of it all?

"I think he'll be a more relaxed putter, enough so that his old yips will disappear," Johnny Miller on Tom Watson's pros- pects on the Seniors Tour.

During the US Masters last April, I met Mark Sheridan when he was a temporary member of Augusta National's greenkeeping staff. In fact it was his second stint there, as a student of Horticulture Technology and Turfgrass Science at the University of Central Lancashire, from where he has since graduated.

I met him again this week, at Letterkenny GC. And what was he doing there? "I've been here since early June, working 80-hour weeks to prepare the course for the Donegal Irish Women's Open," he replied. Which, with respect to the charming stretch beside Lough Swilly, could bear little relation to his work at Augusta.

"On the contrary," he said. "I have applied many of the greenkeeping practices that are used at Augusta, including cutting the greens four times a day." Looking at photographs of Letterkenny prior to the start of Sheridan's contract, the upgrading has been most impressive. Which makes an appropriate addition to his CV, prior to taking up an appointment as head greenkeeper at Limerick and County GC.

One interesting newcomer to the current European team made the question possible. Anyway, it appears that Ian Corr of RTE has been having quite a deal of fun with his golfing friends, posing the conundrum: Over the last 20 years, eight players in European and US Ryder Cup teams have had surnames including the letter Z (zee if you're American). Name them.

If you wish to torture yourself, don't read on. If, on the other hand, you take only a passing interest in such trivia, the players are: Paul Azinger, Jose-Maria Canizares, Lee Janzen, MiguelAngel Jimenez (the newcomer), Bruce Lietzke, Larry Mize, JoseMaria Olazabal and Fuzzy Zoeller.

In his column America at Large in Thursday's edition, George Kimball raised an intriguing point regarding Rule 8-1, covering advice. It had to do with David Feherty, in his capacity as a CBS on-course commentator, giving Tiger Woods crucial information at Firestone last Sunday regarding the progress of Phil Mickelson two holes ahead. As it happened, Mickelson was about to drop a stroke on the finishing hole.

According to Rod Price of the Royal and Ancient's Rules of Golf committee, there was no breach in this circumstance insofar as neither Woods nor his caddie Steve Williams had sought the information, invaluable though it was. But what if player or caddie had asked Feherty what Mickelson was doing? "That would have been a breach," said Price.

Which brings us to the comment made by Feherty during a chat with Kimball. ". . . There would never be a situation where a player asked me for information and I'd refuse," said the CBS man. So, it would appear that players are, in fact, breaking the advice rule by exploiting the up-to-the-minute knowledge of television commentators.

Meanwhile, Price added that it was up to the organisers of a tournament to consider the ethics of the sort of exchange between Woods and Feherty last Sunday. "We had a situation in a recent professional tournament in which a television commentator was broadcasting information about the clubs being used on a par three," he added. "It was obvious that other players could hear him, so the match referee asked him to move away out of earshot." Ah, the hazards of this electronic age.

During my recent trip to Medinah, I made mention here of Al Capone's golfing exploits and how he shot himself in the thigh when the .45 revolver which he carried in his golf-bag went off accidentally. I have since learned of the weapon being put to more sinister use.

It seems that a bodyguard names Banjo Eyes once caught Al in the act of playing a substitute ball. When Banjo Eyes, rather injudiciously, called ol' Scarface a liar, Capone roared: "On your knees and start praying!" Whereupon he reached into the bag and took out the revolver.

We are informed that only the tearful intercession of a young Irish caddie named Timothy Sullivan, save the blighted life of Banjo Eyes. A case of being plucked from the jaws of death, you might say.

This day in golf history . . . On September 4th 1994, Patricia Meunier captured the Waterford Dairies' English Open at the Tytherington Club, Cheshire, for her debut victory on the European Tour. Australia's Corinne Dibnah and England's Lora Fairclough shared the lead after 54 holes, but with a final round of 71, Meunier came from two behind to win by two strokes.

Two years later, the 24-year-old French player became a surprise winner of the Irish Women's Open at Luttrellstown Castle. It confirmed the rich promise of an amateur career which saw her win the French Amateur and Greek Strokeplay titles in 1992 and become joint leading amateur in the British Women's Open in 1993.

Teaser: A player begins his downswing with the intention of striking the ball but decides during the downswing not to strike the ball. The player is unable to stop the club before it reaches the ball, but he is able to swing intentionally over the top of the ball. Is the player deemed to have made a stroke?

Answer: No. The player has checked his downswing voluntarily by altering the path of his downswing and missing the ball, even though the swing carried the clubhead beyond the ball. However, any doubt in such a case must be resolved against the player. If, for example, the clubhead struck the ball, there would be insufficient evidence to support a claim that the player had not made a stroke.