Tournament golf, as Seve Ballesteros likes to remind us, is something of a family affair. Its participants, be they players, caddies, journalists or officials, should all be aware of each other's responsibilities towards making the system work as smoothly as possible.

John O'Reilly, who now caddies for Padraig Harrington having previously worked with Peter Townsend and Des Smyth, can empathise with those sentiments. Known simply as Reilly and acknowledged as a character on the tour, he takes delight in teaching Irish phrases to Spanish-speaking players.

I was extremely dubious about this claim until the Argentinian, Eduardo Romero, happened to pass us at Winged Foot this week. "Conas ta tu John," he greeted the caddie in very passable Gaelic, accompanied by a typically latin smile.

In the event, if O'Reilly hadn't already been aware of the notion of inter-dependence, it was brought home to him after his 16-year-old son, Stephen, was involved in a road accident on the Saturday of the Murphy's Irish Open. Fortunately, his injuries were mainly superficial.

At the start of this year, Stephen followed his father into a caddying career and worked at Druids Glen with the Swiss, Paolo Quirici, who missed the cut. "When people got to hear about the accident, they were very kind, especially the other caddies and some of the pros," he said. But he was particularly taken by the daily enquiries from Bernhard Langer about the teenager's progress in hospital.

As it happens, O'Reilly is involved in charity work for the Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. And with the help of Spawell's Paul Kennedy, he is spearheading a special event for them at the south Dublin golf centre next Monday evening at 6.0 p.m.

The resourceful caddie lined up some European Tour players, including Harrington and Quirici, for an event which takes the form of blindfolded professionals playing the par-three course at Spawell against blind golfers. But he needed a really big name.

"Bernhard was so kind in inquiring about my son that I thought it would be worth asking him to help us out," said O'Reilly. Which he did, through Langer's caddie Peter Coleman, naturally. And the response? "I'd be delighted," said the German.

So, the caddie got his man - which will come as no surprise to those familiar with the grizzled Dubliner. And as a post-script to the story, he informed me that Stephen will be leaving hospital next Tuesday, just in time to work for Quirici in the Smurfit European Open.

"There is absolutely no excuse for a featureless hole anywhere on any course. If it has not got anything about it that might make it respectable, it has got to have quality knocked into it until it can hold its head up in polite society." - A W Tillinghast (designer of Winged Foot).

Winged Foot are rather proud of their new, state-of-theart sprinkler system, which allows them to set up the course almost to order. "We have more flexibility than ever before," said Bob Alonzi, course superintendent at the club for 14 years.

Each fairway now contains 40 sprinkler heads as opposed to 10 under the old system. It means that the maintenance staff can minimise so-called hot spots on a course that was highly susceptible to summer heat.

"Our staff have identified the hot spots and we have programmed those findings into the system so that the critical areas can be watered before it becomes a problem," said Alonzi.

It was one of the few bright situations in a rather grim Walker Cup weekend - and Charlie Yates enjoyed it enormously. He happened to be at Quaker Ridge as a survivor of the 1938 team, which had the dubious distinction of becoming the first American line-up to be defeated in the Walker Cup.

Yates will be remembered in Ireland as the wretched American who beat Cecil Ewing in the final of the British Amateur at Royal Troon in 1938. To the members of the Association of Golf Writers, however, he has been a welcoming press officer at Augusta National for the US Masters each year.

In gratitude, our little group at Quaker Ridge presented the remarkable 85-yearold with a print of a Graeme Baxter painting of the 17th hole at Troon. As it happened, Yates played it only once in the 36hole final, which he won by 3 and 2.

Clearly charmed by the presentation, he proceeded to give us a fine, baritone rendition of "A Wee Deoch an Doras" which he learned during the Walker Cup at St Andrews 59 years ago from a British player who was "grinnin' like a mule eatin' briars." "I've got more mileage out of that song than Bing Crosby got out of White Christmas," he remarked with a smile.

Yates has attended every Masters since its inception in 1934. Indeed he actually played in the first 11 stagings. So there is little about the famous tournament that has escaped him, including the eccentricities of the brusque Colonel Jones, the great Bobby's father.

Warming to the memory, Yates commenced: "This Colonel Jones was the darndest fella you ever saw. During one of the early Masters, he was asked to advise the players on the embedded ball rule, which, of course, he knew nothing about.

"As luck would have it, a player approached him for help about a ball that was embedded in a hazard. `What's your problem, son', enquired the Colonel. When the youngster explained his predicament, the Colonel responded: `Let me ask you, how do you stand son?'

"The lad replied: `I'm seven over for the day and 22 over for the tournament.' Whereupon the Colonel advised: `Goddam it son, put the goddam ball on the green for all I care'." We all laughed and Charlie was so pleased that he burst into song again, this time with the negro spiritual "Look down, look down, that lonesome road." A truly delightful occasion.

From a distinguished series of 111 matches, it produced the most lopsided outcome. I refer to the recent Shell's Wonderful World of Golf meeting in which Jack Nicklaus thrashed Johnny Miller by 11 strokes - 70 to 81 - at the par-71 Olympic Club of San Francisco.

As with the match between Fred Couples and Tom Watson at Mount Juliet last month, Nicklaus received $100,000 and Miller $50,000. Because of the abysmal quality of Miller's putting, however, there is some doubt as to whether the match will be televised as scheduled on October 29th.

"My nerves are very fragile," said 50-year-old Miller, who three-putted five times in front of a gallery of 5,000. It was very different from their first meeting in 1966 during the US Open at the Olympic Club. Nicklaus finished third behind Billy Casper and Miller, then a 19-year-old amateur, was tied eighth.

It may seem far-fetched but the metal in question is extremely valuable. Which could explain the word in the equipment industry over here, that the Russians have sold old titanium submarines to golf club manufacturers who are turning them into over-sized drivers.

It's here, a special pill for golfers. And it comes courtesy of Jesper Parnevik, that well-known consumer of volcanic sand. In fact the eccentric Swede has been sampling his own medicine at Winged Foot this week.

When the orange-lime pill is dropped into a bottled water, it creates a rust-coloured liquid which eventually looks like orange squash. "It's a high-energy pill which we have come up with for golfers," said Parnevik, referring to his collaboration with a Swedish company.

The American-based golfer first took notice of the pills when they were prescribed for the Norwegian ski team and he concluded that golfers needed a similar boost. "The pills give you high energy for long periods," he claimed. "They help me keep the focus I need for four or five hours during a round of golf."

Teaser: A player's tee shot comes to rest in tree roots. He makes a stroke, fails to move the ball and then declares the ball unplayable. May the player return to the tee, playing four, under Rule 28a?

Answer: No. Rule 28a permits the player to play "a ball . . . at the spot from which the original ball was last played." The original ball was last played from the tree roots, not the tee.