TIFFS and spats between golfing superstars like Harrington and Goosen are nothing new. Sometimes, in fact, they can go a little further than that, as Christy O’Connor Senior admits in a particularly revealing chapter in his autobiography.

THE younger generation may have gained the impression that the misbehaviour which marred the 1999 Ryder Cup at Brookline was the first sign of trouble in a competition launched by wealthy British seed merchant Samuel Ryder back in 1927 to foster good relations between the people of the United States and Britain.