Vijay Singh once played in a pro-am with some fella called Teddy Forstmann who was so taken by the Fijian that he ended up as one of his main sponsors.

Forstmann just happened to be the billionaire principal of Forstmann Little which now owns, among other things, the management giant IMG.

If privately most of the pros will invariably grumble about the pace of play when they team up with amateur partners, it all got a bit too much for Jim Furyk whose third round at last weekend's AT&T at Pebble Beach took all of six hours and 40 minutes.

What, Furyk was asked, was his reaction to such an endurance test. "Well, you could shoot me, " the world number two suggested.

BASIL ADDS FLAVOUR TO JAMES'S GAME Perhaps thinking his boss would be a bit rusty heading into his first event of the Champions Tour season after a three-week skiing holiday in the French Alps, Mark James's caddie asked for a week off to work on the PGA Tour at Pebble Beach instead.

James, meanwhile, travelled to Florida for the Allianz Championship confident that he would be able to hire a local caddie, and when Mark McNulty withdrew due to a bad back, his porter, Basil van Rooyen, was on hand to offer James his services.

To the surprise of most observers, James made light of his lack of preparation to hold off Jay Haas for a two-shot victory and a winner's cheque for $240,000.

Presuming Van Rooyen was on a 10 per cent cut, the week turned out to be much more lucrative than expected.