Joe Murdoch passed away recently. Co-founder of The Golf Collectors' Society, he shepherded two revered and coveted bibliographies: The Library of Golf and, with Dick Donovan, The Game of Golf and The Printed Word 1566-1985.

Joe thought of himself as a modest collector in the way that Harvey Penick fancied himself a grown caddie. Some years ago I wrote him asking for help on, of all things, ball retrievers. There was no reason why he should've bothered, but he looked up early patent numbers and offered several helpful suggestions. I think the letter amused him, but he couldn't have been nicer. "That is about the extent of my knowledge," he wrote. "Not much but perhaps of some help. March on!"

Technology and flabby instructional writing were easy targets for the Murdoch wit. "Complicating the high-handicapper's search for the elusive answer are such modern innovations as the videocassette which offer us unintelligible verbiage translated into incomprehensible visual images." Lovely. And, this: "We would hazard the guess that if Sarazen or Snead or Palmer or Wild Bill Melhorn ever read a book of instruction, the world would not know today of the wonders they performed." Golf has lost a good friend.

The Talking Point Interview is with sports psychologist Patrick Cohn, the author of several works on golf's mental side, clearly a growth industry. Among the topics discussed: choking, Jean van de Velde, focus, and the practice ethic of Seve Ballesteros. Dr. Cohn also describes several drills for instilling confidence.

Worth bookmarking: John Hopkins's column in The Times of London. It appears on Mondays. http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/times/frontpage.html?999

Swing Thoughts - Volume I