Golf Central

On this day in 1961, the colourful PGA Tour star Doug Sanders - the "peacock of the fairways" - won the Greater New Orleans Open ... and six years later to the day, Sanders also triumphed at the 1967 Doral Open on the famous Blue Monster.

Sanders, who came from a humble background in backwoods Georgia, was equally known for his flamboyant, multi-coloured combinations on the course; essentially, he was the Ian Poulter of the 1960s. But Sanders also had big-time game, winning 20 times on the PGA Tour and delivering a host of close calls in the majors ...

In the real world: It was on this day in 1946 that British prime minister Winston Churchill delivered his famous "Sinews of Peace" address, speaking about the Soviet Union in Fulton, Missouri's Westminster College. In the speech, Churchill said: "From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an "iron curtain" has descended across the Continent." ... the curtain wasn't lifted entirely on this day in 1953, but raised a little, when Soviet dictator Josef Stalin snuffed it at age 73 after nearly 30 years in power ...

Strangely enough: A caddie got himself into a bit of hot water with the law (never!) ... On this day in 1926, Val Sullivan, who had caddied for Walter Hagen, received a suspended sentence from a Yonkers, New York court ordering him to leave the town. Sullivan's crime? His sister had complained to the cops that the Irish-born Sullivan was "disturbing the family by engaging in kitchen golf" ... using eggs as balls and perhaps a bit tipsy. No wonder, Val ...

In sport: And on this day in 1993, the disgraced Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson was banned for life after failing a test for performance-enhancing drugs for a second time ... and in 1916, the Spanish football club Real Club Deportivo Mallorca was founded in Palma, Spain, wearing their characteristic red and black kit. Ben Johnson may have cheated, but at least he didn't dive ...

So it's ravihi janmadinam aacharati!, as they say Sanskrit, to veteran US character golfer Dean Stockwell (72) of Married To The Mob and Quantum Leap (unlike other Hollywood stars, Stockwell skips the posh country clubs and plays golf at various Southern California municipal courses); to the Guyana-born rock/reggae singer Eddy Grant (60) of Electric Avenue fame; to thick-accented identical twin brothers Charlie and Craig Reid (46) of Scotland's The Proclaimers; and to the superb New Zealand rugby fly half Dan Carter (26).

It also would have been a birthday for the great English stage and film actor Sir Rex Harrison (b. 1908), but there was little the doctors could do about Dr Dolittle's passing from cancer in 1988 ... 'Til tomorrow! ...