If Carnoustie's head greenkeeper John Philp was at the centre of controversy the last time the British Open was staged at the Scottish links in 1999, it now seems uncertain if he will be back at work before the championship starts on 19 July.

Philp was suspended from his duties last week following an argument with an apprentice over the teenager's cigarette breaks. "I would certainly hope to be back at work before the Open starts, " he said.

If he doesn't make it, there mightn't be much sympathy from some of the players who sufferered eight years ago when the rough was allowed to grow and the fairways were narrowed. Sergio Garcia missed the cut with rounds of 89 and 83, while David Duval called Philp "an out-of-control groundskeeper".

DESPONDENT BEGAY PONDERS FUTURE At one stage, it looked like Notah Begay was going to be the business. He was a key player in Stanford's NCCA title win in 1994, he was a big brother to Tiger Woods at the university the following season, and then he won four times on the PGA Tour.

But following a chronic back problem, Begay's career went into a tailspin, and when he lost his PGA Tour card, he ended up in Europe where this season he has earned just over /36,000.

Still troubled by a herniated disk, there is now a strong chance that he will have to undergo surgery. "I'm at a point now where I've really questioned whether I'll return to a high level, " he said last week. "I have no ego left. Honestly, the game has beaten it out of me."

THE ART OF FINDING WITHOUT LOOKING PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem has done a spectacular uturn with his recent call for golf to develop a global policy on drug testing. Just last year when responding to questions about the need for testing, Finchem said there was "no evidence of players taking steroids in this sport".

But then, how could there have been any evidence when there is no testing programme in place?