I’m going to take a brief break in the action to take inventory. • Did Ray Floyd really spend the night at Golf Ball’s house in Jackson, as Ball said? • Did CBS really decide not to air that made-for-TV match when Mickey Wright and Barb Romack defeated Arnold Palmer and Dow Finsterwald, as Mickey said? • Did Venturi really tell Palmer he was violating the rules when he played two balls that day on twelve at the ’58 Masters, as Ken said? • And who on earth filled out Fred’s application for the 1979 U.S. Open? The most thorough account of the incident on twelve that I have read is Herbert Warren Wind’s SI game story in the issue dated April 21, 1958. But it has a significant omission: It never cites the actual rule that governed the action that Sunday. As I was trying to make sense of this cold case, it occurred to me that you had to have the exact language of the rule at your fingertips to really understand the dispute. I did not. I again turned to David Fay, the retired USGA executive director.
