The game of golf may be the same wherever it's played. Unless, of course, you're talking about how you will find it played in the small towns of Calera, Ala., or Crandall, Texas.

In Crandall, 25 miles or so southeast of downtown Dallas, the new owner of the Creekview Golf Club is the town itself. How a town with a population of about 2,600 and a town budget of barely $2 million was able to buy a course for a shade more than $3 million is a discussion better suited for the city's elected officials and its citizenry. But everyone does agree on one aspect of the transaction: Out-of-towners now have better things to say about the place.

For the longest time, Crandall's reputation was built primarily around revenue from the speeding tickets handed out to motorists going along U.S. Route 175. "It's a revenue generator," city manager Judy Bell told The Dallas Morning News a few months ago. "I don't think any of us liked saying, 'I'm from Crandall,' and having somebody say, 'Oh, yeah, I got a ticket there.' "

If the town was going to change its image and be a little more tolerant to all but the most flagrant drivers, it needed a way to make up the revenue, which is where the purchase of Creekview came in. Officials have now noticed an increase in the traffic coming through town - much of it headed for the course - which has made everyone happy.

The course in Calera, Ala., a community of about 1,700 an hour or so due south of Birmingham, is largely the creation of Charles McCombs, who virtually single-handedly designed and built the Big M Country Club. Disturbed over the price of a round of golf during a beach vacation several years back, McCombs decided he could build his own course. He started with a single hole but received so much enjoyment from playing it he built another. Friends began to frequent the property, so many of them that McCombs and his family sometimes had to wait in order to play. That inspired him to create seven more holes to make it a nine-hole facility, but the number of players kept increasing to the point where McCombs added nine more.

The Big M will never be confused with some of the more renowned private clubs in Birmingham. When McCombs sits down to lunch or dinner, anyone at the facility is more than welcome to join him, and on some days there's not even a worker around to collect green fees.

Once, when McCombs and his wife went away for a week, they left behind a sign that noted the prices, along with a request to leave the money in a nearby bucket. Everyone did - to the tune of $600.

Asked McCombs, "What other golf course in America has players like that?"

None that we know of.

- Rich Skyzinski

At last, the books, documents and periodicals within the USGA collection have been given their independence. And it didn't take a declaration to achieve - just some savvy planning. With the June opening of the library inside the Association's administration building, the vast collection that was once housed inside the Museum finally has a comfortable new home.

"The library had this reputation of a bunch of dusty books on the shelf," said librarian Rand Jerris. "We now have a computer system and everyone sees this tremendous improvement." Desks and a photocopy machine are available for researchers, as is an extensive collection of periodicals dating back to the late 1800s.

Judy Tapiero, an outside consultant, was brought in to help recategorize the 14,000 volumes of material. She created 20 new categories from what was one, and developed eight pages of new classifications. The old catalog system was discarded and index cards were reviewed and revised.

The results have been staggering. Researchers often waited months for a reply for information, but Jerris can answer some requests within a day. More complex projects may take a week. "The internet provides a great way for people to get in touch with us and we can reply quickly," Jerris said.

Eventually, all the rare books housed in the Museum will be in the library as a small number of older volumes, which have graced the Bobby Jones Room for years, are moved from the Museum. Once that happens, all the written information will be housed in an area right next to the video and photo archives, Jerris said.

And as the library grows, so too will the collection. Within the past six months, Jerris has obtained manuscripts from the New Jersey State Golf Association, the Women's State Golf Association of Massachusetts and papers written by Walter Travis.

"We'd like to become an archive for original golf papers," Jerris said. "I got a call from Findlay Douglas's family because they were doing some family history and just found out about him [1898 U.S. Amateur champion and USGA president the year Jones won the Grand Slam]. They had no idea how important a person he was in the world of golf."

Or just how important this library is to the USGA.

- David Shefter

When Ed Brooks bowed to Jeff Knox, 3 and 2, at the 1999 U.S. Mid-Amateur, he made news, but not just for being one of 16 players to be vanquished in the second round. The defeat kept alive a dubious streak for the medalist at this national championship: In 19 playings of the Mid-Amateur, no medalist has ever walked away with the title.

Other than the USGA Senior Women's Amateur, which converted to match play from stroke play in 1997, the Mid-Amateur remains the only USGA event for which this trend holds true, although without Carol Semple Thompson's victory in 1990, the Women's Mid-Amateur, started in 1987, would be sharing a similar fate.

Being medalist does not automatically ensure match-play success. For example, the top qualifier at the U.S. Amateur has inexplicably lost in the first round in each of the last three years and seven of the last 10. Since 1964, when the match-play draw was reconfigured to place the top two qualifiers in opposite ends of the bracket, the top two seeds have met in the final exactly zero times. And in 62 Amateurs played with stroke-play qualifying, only twice (1901 and 1940) have players with the lowest two stroke-play scores advanced to the final.

In fact, the last medalist to win any USGA title was Beth Bauer in 1997 at the Girls' Junior. The last male to do it was Tiger Woods in 1996 at the U.S. Amateur. And how about this for an anomaly: None of this year's medalists even reached the final, while only Pat Milton (Women's Mid-Am) advanced as far as the semis.

As the year 2000 dawns, one has to wonder if this recent trend is an aberration or an adaptation. Certainly the growing number of quality players - not just from the U.S. but also from foreign countries - has made the fields deeper. Thirteen medalists have won the U.S. Amateur, but just four since 1979. At the Amateur Public Links, only three medalists have won since 1990 and two were by the same player, David Berganio Jr. (1991 and '93). The event with the longest drought? The Senior Amateur, which hasn't seen a medalist win since John Richardson in 1987 at Saucon Valley (Pa.) C.C.

- D.S.

How has golf's economic landscape changed over the last half century? Rather dramatically, we would say.

Consider this: By winning eight times in 1999, Tiger Woods pocketed more than $6.6 million in prize money. Forget that's more than twice the previous record. It is also some $807,000 more than five renowned players from a previous era won in official PGA Tour earnings throughout their lifetimes. For collecting a total of $5.8 million, Billy Casper, Don January, Gene Littler, Doug Sanders and Sam Snead merely won a collective 191 titles.

Bad timing? Leonard Cohen of Marlen Stamps and Coins Ltd. of Great Neck, N.Y., knew about the stamps' release date two weeks prior to the crash. Now his distributing company can barely keep the items in stock as calls from collectors have been rampant. To his knowledge, Cohen said, the stamp was the first to honor Stewart, who played on the 1987, '89, '91 and '99 Ryder Cup teams and captured 18 tournaments over his 20-year pro career, including three majors. Stewart won the '99 Open in dramatic style, draining a 15-foot par putt at the 72nd hole to beat Phil Mickelson by a stroke. Cohen added that foreign countries often issue stamps of current sports figures or newsmakers.

Topics to be covered at each session include: purpose and definitions of the handicap system; player and committee responsibilities; formulas; handicap competitions and allowances; the golf course and insight to rating and measuring; allocation of handicap strokes; and appendices, including combining non-consecutive nine-hole scores. The cost for each seminar is $30 ($40 if lunch is served) and applicants will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis. Application forms are available on the USGA website at www.usga.org.