MEET the man who has scored five holesin one, set eight course records, played representative golf for Oxfordshire and for Leinster, has been the captain of two golf clubs and has just had a tournament named in his honour.

Meet Bob Moran. The man who hit Tom Craddock on the head with a golf ball and then ran away with his partner.

Well, not quite. Let's clearup that last one.

It happened at the East of Ireland Championship when Moran was going very well, needing a birdie to win, until his pal Craddock walked out of the car park and straight into the path of his drive.

Craddock went down, the ball went out of bounds, Craddock went to hospital and Moran instantly withdrew from an event he could have won.

When it all became clear that Tom would survive the distraught Moran, sitting at his bedside, took the injured man's instructions: "You owe me one, Bob. The Milltown Mixed Foursomes starts tomorrow and you must take my place and look after Philomena Garvey."

What penance. Condemned to play with the queen of Irish golf and one of the greatest lady golfers ever to put on spikes up to then or since not alone in Ireland but worldwide. Obviously, there was a happy ending as the Moran-Garvey partnership won the Milltown event and defended successfully the following year. Craddock, the ultimate gentleman, smiled through it all although his head must have throbbed a little more thinking of what could have been.

Playing so much golf with Philomena Garvey was a rare thrill. "She was so competitive, " he says, "I never met anyone so determined. It was wonderful to see. And we had the perfect foursomes relationship as we never tried telling each other how to play.

It was a case of total trust and respect and I learned a great deal from her as well as enjoying our friendship."

"I never saw anyone, I don't think anyone ever lived, who was as good as she was from 100-yards in. She was phenomenal."

In subsequent years Moran went on to win the Milltown again with Therese O'Reilly as his partner and underline his competitive skills as the Milltown Mixed was truly a major on the Leinster golf calendar in those days.

Winning came easy to Moran from an early age and this became clear in 1963 when he set a course record 63 at Tadmarton in Oxfordshire, breaking a mark set by the legendary Roger Wetehered forty years earlier, and went on to play for the county for three years and win the Warwickshire Open Championship also.

Setting course records became a habit with this easygoing, sweet-swinging giant as he achieved eight in all including 67 at Woodbrook, 66 at the Castle, 69 at Connemara, 69 at St. Andrews and 68 at Waterford and another in Corfu where he won the minor, but very satisfying, Corfu Open as a result.

He fitted-in comfortably in all golf company and formed a cordial relationship with Manuel Pinero when they played together in a pro-am at Hermitage one year. Hearing that Moran was a scratchman the canny Spanish pro asked him to hit first at every hole and then watched carefully the flight of each shot.

Result? Pinero won the topprize of �5,000. Ever after that, when Pinero saw Moran outside the ropes at a professional tournament he would come over and ask what time his Irish friend was teeing-off.

Moran did tee-it-up with the pros quite often including in four Irish Open Championships and it is a measure of his skills that he made the cut everytime and that is some achievement for an amateur.

Little wonder, then, that he won the Arklow Scratch Cup in 1974 when such events were difficult to win with men like Craddock, Caul, Des Smyth, Gannon, Howlett, Carr, Fogarty, Jimmy O'Neill and John O'Leary touring the country every weekend in pursuit of a seemingly endless stream of Waterford Glass vases and ash trays.

Moran was always a prominent and respected presence.

He was runner-up in five scratch cups one year including the Midland Scratch Cup at Carlow in 1973 where he went toe-to-toe with Martin O'Brien and lost only when crowd movement distracted him on his second shot. The duo were prominent again in the Irish Amateur Close at Cork in 1975 when Moran lost a semi-final to Joey Bryan who went on to lose the final to O'Brien.

The Irish scratch cup tour was one of the greatest tours on earth and because of that Moran feels honoured beyond words that Woodenbridge Golf Club, where he has been captain as well as at neighbouring Arklow, has honoured him by creating such an event in his name. It is expected to grow into a very big event in the years ahead.