Montford Memories: Secret of 007's yearning for a true taste of Scotland

THE opportunity to meet a superstar of the silver screen and play with a great Open champion and a star amateur all in the one year doesn't come round very often, well maybe once in a lifetime to be honest.

All this lay ahead when the late industrialist Sir Ian Stewart got together in the summer of 1969 with some good friends including senior producer David Johnstone from Scottish Television to "kick around a few ideas" which might lead to a top-class pro-am at a really good course the following year. The event was to take place just before the 1970 Open Championship at St Andrews, so there would be lots of big names heading for Fife. Sir Ian had already spoken to his golfing friend Sean Connery who agreed to meet all the interested parties for lunch at Old Troon on a visit home to Scotland that autumn, before work started in Los Angeles and Las Vegas on his latest James Bond special Diamonds are Forever.

I was thrilled to be invited to be part of this exclusive gathering, and was lucky enough to find myself sitting beside 007 for lunch. And when the club steward offered his visitors a smashing menu to choose from, I couldn't miss Sean's inquiry. There might have been plenty of beautifully prepared dishes to choose from, but the actor wasn't tempted, and felt that something was missing. What would it be? Would the club chef be able to satisfy the superstar's sophisticated tastes?

"Tell me," asked Connery, "have you any mince?"

Cool as you like, the steward replied that as a matter of fact, that was what the staff were having. "Well," said the big man, "that will do me as well. And maybe a poached egg with it please."

Meanwhile, at Cardross Golf Club, Charlie Green was preparing his 13th entry for the Scottish Amateur Championship, a title which had so far eluded him in a distinguished career. Early in the year he accepted an invitation to play in the Sean Connery Tournament and had his entry accepted for "the Scottish". Further wonderful news followed when the draw for the big event over 36 holes at Royal Troon, revealed that one of big Charlie's partners was to be former Open champion Roberto de Vicenzo of Argentina. The bad news for them was that the third member of the trio was to be me!

There have been few figures in the world of golf as popular as the amiable Argentine who won the Open at Hoylake in 1967. He is remembered equally for the tournament he didn't win, the 1968 Masters. De Vicenzo finished 3-4 to tie Bob Goalby but his playing partner Tommy Aaron somehow put down a 4 not a 3 at the 71st hole. De Vicenzo missed the error, signed the card and under the Rules of Golf the wrong score stood. No play-off took place and Goalby took the green jacket.

Charlie and Roberto could not have been nicer to their nervous playing partner. Playing with your pals for 1 is one thing; this was simply a different world. On the first day of this 36-hole tournament we didn't play well. Many top pros like Eric Brown, Bobby Locke, Billy Casper, Kel Nagle, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player were in front of us, but on the second day Roberto played magnificently. I finally managed to use my eight shots, Charlie putted splendidly and we finished fourth. And a month later, Charlie won the Scottish Amateur Championship at last.