Stake-out at Hanging Tree puts golfer in high-security bunker

GEORGE BUSH, the former president of the United States, used to mutter when he was confronted with a particularly nasty problem. 'Mulligan, mulligan,' he would fume as stalked around the Oval Office.

His mantra, an unofficial golfing term for a free second shot from the tee, has lived on with his successor, Bill Clinton, who takes it literally, writes Phil Reeves in Los Angeles. When he muffed a drive in front of press photographers, he teed up another ball and drove off again.

But the most powerful men in the world are reflecting a common American habit. You only have to play a couple of rounds on a Californian public course to notice that many golfers think nothing of shaving off a shot, nudging a ball on to a promising-looking divot, or replacing a lost ball by discreetly dropping another one down a trouser leg.

Charles Carey, therefore, has every reason to feel deeply aggrieved. Mr Carey, who also happens to be wanted on forgery charges in Colorado, has spent three weeks behind bars in a high-security prison near Indianapolis. His crime? Cheating at golf.

He was arrested after 18 holes in a charity match at the Hanging Tree golf course by detectives who accused him of shaving 13 shots off his score. Mr Carey, who paid a dollars 75-entry fee, said he shot a 67, and was rewarded with the grand prize of a dozen golf balls. Undercover detectives from the Hamilton County Sheriff's Department, who tailed him in a golf cart, had a different tally. They said his score was at least 80 - and promptly charged him with theft.

Mr Carey is adamant that he is innocent and has issued a challenge to the authorities. 'Let me shoot 18 holes of golf,' he told Inside Edition, a US television show. 'If I don't make par, or break par, then they can do what they want.'

Police who saw his allegedly suspect round are certain they have nailed their man. 'He would hit the ball to the back of the green, but would drop it at the front,' said one. 'We would have him down for a seven on a par five, and he would put down a five.'

Whether Mr Carey's experience will prompt Americans to clean up their game remains in doubt. But it lends weight to H L Mencken's much-quoted observation: 'If I had my way, any man guilty of golf would be ineligible for any office of trust in the United States.'