This month our popular columnist tells us about those he has encountered who had short fuses on the golf course 

Growing up we had a small wooden sign that said 'Keep your temper, no one wants it.' Both my father and my oldest brother, John, were cool customers on the golf course. Neither showed much emotion and they were both terrific players who won the SA Amateur and were runners-up in the SA Open.

Me? I displayed my feelings, good or bad. When I was about 14, we had a member at Zwartkop by the name of Rod Mullen who made the Springbok team but he had a horrific temper. He was a perfectionist and I can still remember him buying a new set of woods. It was a driver, a 3-wood and 4-wood, beautiful MacGregor persimmons. At the time they were the bee's knees.

Unfortunately, he missed the fairway on the 1st hole and, of course, it was the club's fault – so he smashed the head against the metal marker and there were only two woods. At the 2nd, he pushed his tee shot into the water and the 3-wood head met up with the marker, so now only one wood was left. Fortunately, the 3rd hole was a par three, but on the 4th it was the turn of the 4-wood. When the tee shot missed the fairway on the left, it was the end of those beautiful three new persimmon woods.

I loved the story I heard about Fulton Allem playing with Nick Price at Harbour Town in the Heritage Classic. On the 1st hole, he pulled his tee shot which bounced on the fairway and kicked left into the water. He three-putted the 2nd and took a three from the edge at the 3rd hole. Walking to the tee at the 4th, he turned to his caddie and said: 'Give me something to break.' His caddie replied: 'How about par, Fulton?'

Simon Hobday was playing well in the British PGA one year but in the final round he couldn't hole a putt. At the beautiful Wentworth on the 12th hole par five he three-putted for a par, reached into his back pocket and pulled out a yellow card and said loudly: 'That's your first warning.'

All went well until the 18th when another putt slipped past the hole, Out came the red card, followed by the putter shaft being snapped over his knee. On the way home he tied the putter head with half a shaft to the back bumper of his hired car and drove all the way back to the hotel with sparks flying from the putter hitting the tarmac.

'Tommy, that's the only club you have left'

Cesar asked him who was the greatest golfer he'd ever seen. Remembering he'd seen them all – from Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Snead, Nelson, Palmer, Player, Trevino and Nicklaus, he carried on walking and eventually said to Cesar: 'On a given day, the right course, there was a man who could beat anyone.'

Cesar asked, 'But what was his name?'

His name was Thomas H Bolt.

The second time I met him was at the PGA Show in Orlando in the early 2000's. I introduced myself and he was very gregarious and I asked him about his trip to South Africa when he played a series of exhibitions against Gary Player. He had good memories of South Africa, probably because he beat Player a few times.

Then I asked him if he still played golf – he was 88 at the time. He said: 'Yes, every day at 1pm – that's when the leaders tee off.' Then I asked him if all the stories of him losing his temper and breaking clubs were true. He replied: 'Son, if you ain't thrown or broken a few clubs in your time, you quite simply didn't love the game enough.'

There were two Italian brothers who played the Tour in Europe in the 70's – Luciano and Carlo Grappasoni.

Carlo was a hothead and one day missed a short putt. He stood and spat into the hole. He kept on spitting and swearing until his playing partner came over and asked him to stop spitting because he still had to putt out.