Anyway, there was some high dudgeon in print as many of the scribes here had to write about their own following last Tuesday's Association of Golf Writers' annual dinner. Several of Europe's Ryder Cup players were present at the bash including Padraig Harrington, who presented an award for distinguished services to the game to his coach, Bob Torrance.

There were also a number of grandees with Peter Dawson, the R&A's chief executive, and the commissioner of the PGA Tour, Tim Finchem, on the guest list.

If the most offensive remarks were made by Graham Brown, an R&A member and a former captain of Hoylake, the speeches didn't exactly get off to an ideal start when BBC radio's former golf correspondent, Tony Adamson, chose to relate a story which referred to a frustrated golfer coming home after a bad round, punching his wife, and saying something about all the shots he hit being fat.

Things got worse when Brown told the audience a story of Japanese golfing brothers . . . 'Nips' he called them . . . and their caddies.

Informing his audience that all Japanese people look alike . . . hilarious . . . and that on the final hole of their game, one of the players told his caddie he had given him the wrong club.

According to Brown, the caddie replied it wasn't the wrong club, more the player was the wrong brother.

He also told another of his yarns by mimicking the speech pattern of someone with a cleft palate. Brown subsequently apologised, and the Association of Golf Writers, who had invited the hapless blazer to speak, also apologised, but all the R&A could was to disassociate itself from the suggestion that the remarks were racist.

"Graham Brown is a good golfer, he's a very knowledgeable individual with regard to the rules of golf, " said Martin Kippax, chairman of the Open championship committee. "He realises the errors of his ways."

Later in the week, the R&A realised the error of their ways in defending the indefensible, and Brown was sent packing from Carnoustie.

Your intrepid correspondent found himself in a bit of a spot on the way to the Open championship the last time it was played at Carnoustie in 1999. Everything seemed in order on arrival at Edinburgh airport, but then it transpired I had forgotten to pack my driving licence.

You might be aware that some of Scotland's links venues are not very accessible, and then when you find them, you must have wheels to get around. Anyway, on hearing my mournful tones, a compatriot in the queue behind me took pity. He was going to Carnoustie, and he'd be happy to give me a lift.

During the journey, as I made a series of frantic phone calls in an effort to arrange for a copy of my driving licence to be faxed to the car hire firm's office in Dundee, Alan Swan told me he owned the Kartel line of clothing which was endorsed by Padraig Harrington.

As I continued to plead with the hire firm to let me have a car, Alan also mentioned that he had signed up a new player a fortnight before the Open, a Scottish bloke by the name of Paul Lawrie.

Waste of money, I said to myself as I started using my mobile again.

You might wonder why David Leslie, the one-time Scotland rugby captain, is getting a mention here. Well, the back row who was a key player in the Grand Slam team of 1984, is recovering from serious injuries which at one stage threatened to leave him wheelchair bound.

Leslie was working on the roof of his house just outside Dundee when he fell about 20 feet damaging both arms and his neck. Initially, the prognosis was bad as there were fears he'd be paralysed, but after two months in hospital, the 55-year-old is on the mend.

And Lesie and the Open?

He happens to be the architect who designed the Carnoustie hotel for the 1999 championship which you can see as the players approach the 18th green.

Although Jean Van de Velde's implosion and Paul Lawrie's play-off victory here eight years ago made headlines around the world, not everyone in golf, it seems, was that interested.

For Boo Weekley, playing in his first Open, the drama of 1999 somehow failed to register. "I didn't even know Paul Lawrie won here. I don't pay no attention to no golf, " the American said. "I was playing the mini tours, I was probably fishing or something."

In fact, when Weekley was paired with Lawrie at last week's Scottish Open, he asked the Scot how he had made it into the field. "You qualify?" he said to Lawrie, who as a former champion is exempt until 2034.

And as for Van de Velde and his calamitous finish, Weekley was equally unsure of his ground. "Who? What did he do?"

Unable to play this week due to illness, Van de Velde's name has cropped up as many times as Lawrie's, and workmen who were upgrading the banks of the Barry Burn at the 18th decided before the championship to commemorate the Frenchman in stone.

Now inscribed in the brickwork are the words, 'Jean Van de Velde '99'. Not here, but not forgotten.