Golf: Integrity has its reward

There can be no more picturesque setting to usher in the new spring than this leafy corner of Surrey, and yesterday the Sunningdale Foursomes were blessed with glorious sunshine. Until, that is, a certain chillness entered the second quarter-final on the fifth green.

David Jones had just played his recovery shot from a greenside bunker when Mark Palmer and Gary Walmsley wondered aloud whether they should claim the hole because Jones' caddie, a local bag-carrier, had inadvertently raked the bunker some 15 yards from his player's ball when he went to pick up the rake.

Jeremy Robinson, Jones' partner and fellow Challenge Tour player from Essex, conceded the hole. He was annoyed for some time, which was justified when he read Exception 2 to Rule 13-4 which states such an action by a caddie, as long as it does not improve the player's line, should not be penalised.

Robinson, a former winner here in 1991, recovered to make two telling contributions in his team's one-hole victory. First, at the ninth, he holed from 25 feet to avoid going two down. Then, having hooked his drive at the last and seen Jones hit a superb three-wood from 250 yards on to the front of the green, he holed from 30 feet for a birdie and the match.

In this morning's semi-finals they will play Wayne Riley and Gary Smith, who overcame their fourth-round jinx and then beat the Andrews, Hall and Reynolds, who ended Nigel Mansell's run on Wednesday, 3 and 2.

Julie Hall, now secretary of the Ladies' Golf Union, and Helen Wadsworth, a pro on the women's tour, had their closest match so far when they beat Enfield's Sean Whiffin and Jeremy Jones at the 20th hole.