Golf Central

Burns Night was weeks ago, but this day in history is a good day to be born a Scotsman, especially if you want to win major golf championships or Ryder Cups. For it was on this day in 1949 that Bernard Gallacher OBE was born in Bathgate, became one of Europe's best players in the '70s, and went on to win the 1995 Ryder Cup as captain. ... and on this day in 1958, two-time major champion and humble hero Sandy Lyle was born in Shrewsbury, though he's Scottish through and through ...

The stocky, combative Gallacher was tipped for greatness as early as 1969, when he became the youngest player to represent Great Britain & Ireland in the Ryder Cup (since surpassed by Nick Faldo, Sergio Garcia and others). ... So it was no surprise then that Gallacher went on to win 14 titles on the European Tour between 1969 and '84 despite a full commitment as head pro at London's Wentworth Club. Nor was it a surprise that he was a mainstay as a player on every Ryder Cup team from 1969-83 during the lean years for GB&I and Europe.

Gallacher took over the captaincy of the European Ryder Cup team in 1991 and '93, but it all came together for him in 1995 at Oak Hill in New York, where his European team hit form at the right time and beat the US 14½ USA 13½ in one of the most thrilling Ryder Cups of the last 20 years ...

As for Alexander Walter Barr Lyle, the soft-spoken man who now, at age 50, runs a B&B part-time in Perthside after his tour career went strangely by the wayside in his late 30s. Although born in England to Scottish parents, Lyle has always maintained his essential Scottishness. But with Sandy, things transcended borders: In the late '80s he was among the world's best golfers and paved the way for worldwide success for the likes of Nick Faldo, Ian Woosnam, and Seve Ballesteros.

Sandy was good at firsts: In 1985 at Royal St George's in Sandwich, Kent, Lyle became the first Brit to win the Open Championship since Tony Jacklin in 1969. Three years later, Lyle was in the right place at the right time again, holing a bunker shot on the last shot of the 1988 Masters to become the first-ever Briton to don the Green Jacket. Happy 50th Sandy; maybe we'll see you more often on the senior set ...

If this day is a good day to be born a Scottish golfer, it was a lousy one to be a dirty stinkin' rotten Commie, as on this day in 1950 the raving mad US Senator Joe McCarthy accused 200 or more staffers from the US State Department of being card-carrying Communists in the second Cold War "Red Scare". Old Joe didn't make it easy on folks back in the days of bomb shelters and before the Beatles ...

And here's an answer to an inevitable pub quiz question: Who was Britain's first £1-million transfer player? That's right on this day in 1979, Nottingham Forest set the magic mark by shelling out the major sterling to striker Trevor Francis of Birmingham City (now a Sky Sports pundit), joining Brian Clough's league and Cup-winning side ...

It was also on this day in 1825 that John Quincy Adams was named president of the US by the House of Representatives after no other candidates logged enough electoral votes to take the White House by a clear majority. It begs the question: Weren't there any members of the Bush family to just give the Oval Office to? ...

And just to reiterate the fact that Wikipedia is sometimes wrong, today's entry on the people's encyclopedia says that on this day in 1942: "Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war." Hmmmmn ... you'd think that in the dark days after Pearl Harbour on Dec. 7, 1941 the top brass might have talked over a thing or two. Wikipedia's description is so low-key one can almost imagine Roosevelt chatting to his generals on his mobile: "You know, fellas, there are Japanese storming all over the Pacific and Germans storming all over Europe. What do you think? Meeting? Let's do lunch! ... How 'bout Friday? ... No, you got tickets to a concert? ... OK, what do you say, February 9th? ... That's a Monday ... Oh yeah, don't forget to bring that 'War Plan' thing you've been bugging me about ... Love ya too, babe ..."

And it was on this day in 1964, 44 years ago, that the Beatles made their legendary live appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show, capturing the hearts and minds of America's TV viewers ... And on another cool note, on this day in 1995, Bernard A. Harris Jr became the first African-American astronaut to do a spacewalk, joining Michael Foale, who became the first space-walking Brit on the same space-shuttle mission ...

That said, it's yumi selebretem de blong bon blong yu!, as they say in Vanuatu ... to musician Carole King (66), whose 1971 hit You've Got A Friend spawned the '70s singer/songwriter generation; to little golfing actor Joe Pesci (65), absolutely terrifying and not funny at all as mobster Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas; and to left-wing do-gooder actress and serial mum Mia Farrow (63), former squeeze of Frank Sinatra, Andre Previn and Woody Allen.

And in sport, it's a rousing chorus of happy birthday to Edinburgh's own ginger bantamweight Gordon Strachan (51), the former Aberdeen, Man U and Leeds United winger and now Celtic gaffer; and to the amazing physical specimen that is Los Angeles Angels outfielder Vladmir Guerrero (32), known affectionately as "Vlad The Impaler" and one of the best pure baseball players in the world today.

And it would have been a birthday for the 9th president of the United States, the oft-forgotten William Henry Harrison (b. 1773), but who died just 31 days after his inauguration in 1841. The packing tape wasn't even off the Harrison family's silverware and china in the White House when "Old Tippecanoe" kicked the bucket of pneumonia. Oh for the good old days, because we never knew how good a president Harrison would have made, as opposed to some others ... 'Til tomorrow ...