Arnold Palmer, who will be 80 in September, is currently the subject of a special online project, organised by the United States Golf Association, to celebrate his life. One recent episode in Palmer's life is worth recalling.

Palmer, having finished his business in Wales, flew to St Andrews to play in the Spring meeting of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, of which he is an honorary member. Palmer played with Hamish Ritchie, the current captain, and Graeme Simmers, a past captain.

It was a spectacularly windy day, one that would send the scores soaring, with the wind blowing directly into competitors' faces on the 1st tee. Palmer arrived looking, according to one report, "like Scott of the Antartic." Word had leaked out of the great man's presence and though there were not quite the thousands who watched Bobby Jones, the amateur, all those years ago, one estimate was that 200 spectators had defied the conditions and gathered to see the man who won had been runner-up to Kel Nagle in the 1960 Open at St Andrews before going on to win the Opens at Royal Birkdale and Royal Troon the next two years.

All did not begin as they would have wished. Though Palmer's drive bored into the wind and found the centre of the fairway, the wind swept the initial drives of both Ritchie and Simmers out of bounds, one left and one right.

On the 3rd hole, Palmer said: "I don't normally walk golf courses any more. I use a cart." One was offered to him but he declined. On the 4th the great man observed that the wind was very strong, so strong in fact that many competitions in such conditions would have been delayed because of the danger of the golf balls moving on the greens.

The three-ball battled on until, on finishing the 6th, Palmer signed some hats and autographs before turning for home, saying: "This old horse ain't going to last the course."

Once Palmer reached the clubhouse, he spent a couple of hours socialising with the members as well as presenting prizes to R & A staff. Those present remarked on Palmer's conviviality and, by one account, he enjoyed his visit too, the weather notwithstanding.

Sights at Turnberry this week

1) The old white hotel high on the hill bathed in sunlight. There was plenty of scaffolding on the course where many of the spectators stands have been erected ready for the Open which starts in eight weeks but the hotel, which when last seen a little over one month ago was shrouded in scaffolding, has a lot less metalwork around it now. So it does look as though the promise that 181 of its 209 rooms will be ready for the Open come July will indeed be the case.

2) At a Wilson company day at which Padraig Harrington was the guest of honour and centre of attention, Adrian Mitchell, Harrington's affable manager, received a lot of comments about the shirt and waterproof jacket he was wearing. They were made by Nike.

St Andrews breaking new ground

If you read the Financial Times, Newsweek, the Wall Street Journal or the Harvard Business Review and watch CNN, the TV news network (and I am sorry for even hinting that you might not) then you have got wind of a development at St Andrews that might otherwise have passed you by. The Links Trust, the body that runs the seven public courses in St Andrews, has entered into a three-year financial arrangement with Allianz, the German financial services company.