I've told the story about me knocking back a game with Bernhard Langer in Munich thinking at the time that he was just an upstart and that nothing much would come of him.
This should tell you the extent of how many brain cells l possessed during the early part of my career.
Another of life's opportunities missed was the time this young naive twit was playing golf in Naples, Florida, and walked straight passed Gene Sarazen.
It wasn't until I was half way up the first hole that somebody asked me if I had said 'hello' to one of the world's top players in the 1920s and 1930s, and the winner of seven major championships.
Sarazen was one of five players (along with Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods) to win each of the four majors at least once -- now known as the Grand Slam -- the Open (1922 and 1932), PGA Championship (1922, 1923 and 1933), British Open (1932) and Masters (1935).
How I kick myself now for not stopping to shake Eugenio Saraceni's hand -- this was his name when he entered the world back in Harrison, New York.
His parents were poor Sicilian immigrants, but this did not deter him from winning his first major championships -- the US Open and PGA Championship in 1922 -- at the young age of just 20.
I guess Sarazen will be remembered as the inventor of the modern sand wedge where his innovation was to weld solder onto the lower back of the club, building up the flange so that it sat lower than the leading edge when soled.
The flange, not the leading edge, would contact the sand first, and explode sand as the shot was played.
The additional weight provided punch to power through the thick sand.
Sarazen's newly developed technique with the new club was to contact the sand a couple of inches behind the ball, not actually the ball as was the case in golf's early days.
The other was to make a two on the par-5 15th hole in the last round of the Masters to win the tournament.
I couldn't find this little smiling man when I returned after my round and l so regret that.
Sarazen died at the age of 97.
