THE opportunity to play golf with a former Ryder Cup captain was not to be missed. It would be either Sam Torrance or Mark James, I was told, and not fancying being downwind of one of Sam's roll-ups I wasn't too disappointed when it turned out to be James.

This was in the pro-am at the De Vere Seniors Classic at Slaley Hall, where both Sam and Mark were accompanied by three journalists and consequently finished well down the field. This was particularly harsh on the man known to his mates as "Jesse" as he went round in six under par.

His best shots were awesome and I told him he should save them for the tournament proper instead of wasting them on us. He agreed.

It didn't take long for the banter to start. We had to pose for an official photographer on the second tee, so I removed my cap, pointing out that they always spoilt pictures by casting a shadow across your face.

"In your case that might not be a bad thing," observed Mark.

Originally from Manchester, but now living at Burley-in-Wharfedale, near Otley, where he was club pro for a few years, he is known for the dry sense of humour which belies his rather hangdog gait.

In fact, he could not have been better company and I could not imagine a 51-year-old playing better golf.

We were playing the newer of Slaley's two courses, the Priestman, which he had never seen before. But with the help of one of those Strokesaver booklets, which provide diagrams and yardages too complicated for me, the most astonishing thing about his golf was his perfect judgement of distance.

The 175-yard third was slightly uphill and into the breeze, and watching his ball in flight I would have sworn it was short. But it landed pin high 15 feet to the left.

I followed it with a five-wood, whereas he had hit five-iron and said it would have been a six but for the wind.

At the par four uphill sixth I asked him for guidance with my second shot. "It's 150 yards, but allow 15 yards for the wind and ten for the slope," he said.

After coming down the hill at the seventh we were back up it at the eighth, a par five, where he worked out he had 228 yards to go with his second shot to the front of a green well protected by bunkers. He made it, and while you could have knocked me down with a feather the same probably could not be said of a rather large fellow hack also in our team.

Struggling to play to anywhere near his 19 handicap, he asked Mark what he was doing wrong and was told he was just picking the club up and slapping across the ball. Basically, he needed a better turn and to swing through it.

Mark gave him a simple drill to illustrate the point and by the end of the round the big fellow was 100 per cent better.

It didn't happen immediately, however, and after he hit one out of the heel 45 degrees left, coming to rest just behind the pro's drive, Mark said: "Oh good, you can show me the line in."

The initial lesson was carried out as we waited on the fourth tee, where we had a long wait, and just before teeing off Mark noticed fellow Seniors Tour competitor John Chillas walking on to the third green.

"How come Chillas gets to play with a 6ft gorgeous blonde and I get you lot?" he asked, the girl in question being Anna Scott, from Consett, where they wouldn't let her play from the men's tees, despite the fact that she out-drove most of them.

The wait at the fourth tee was because there was a man 200 yards ahead with red and green flags. Just beyond him the fairway sloped steeply down and once Mark had taken advantage of that to drive about 400 yards it was obvious why the flags were needed.

His first birdie was therefore a formality, as was the one at the par five eighth once he had smacked that 228-yard second shot. At the ninth it seemed to me he had pushed his high approach to the right and it was in danger of coming down short in one of several bunkers, but it landed softly on the front of the green and gently curved left to finish three feet from the pin.

He made two slight errors on the back nine, in both cases because he wanted to find out if he could take on a ditch at driving distance prior to the main event.

In the first instance, at the 14th, it beggared belief that he could even contemplate it. Ordinary mortals settle for a drive of no more than 230 yards, at which point the hole turns left over a small valley with the ditch in the bottom.

Despite the trees on the left, Mark took the tightest line imaginable and just cleared the ditch but was in thickish rough on the far bank. With 100 yards to go uphill, he hit a soaring shot to three feet for another birdie, but declared that he wouldn't be risking that drive again.

At the par five 16th he was again in long grass on the ditch's far bank but escaped with a par, observing that he hoped he hadn't used up all his luck in an event in which there was no individual prize for the pro's.

Not that he does too badly, having won almost a million dollars on the American Seniors Tour last year, which he is playing again this season with a win already behind him.

Looking tanned and fit after his cancer scare a few years ago, he plans to play 17 events in the States this year and only three in Britain.

"There was a time when senior golf in America could sell itself as exhibition stuff but they are now selling it as a competitive tour," he said."There are guys like Craig Stadler who could still perform well on the main tour.

"It's a serious business. Quite a few have their coaches with them and we all keep fit. I do an hour in the gym four or five times a week, doing aerobic exercises, weights and stretching.

"When I started we were told never to use weights because we would become muscle-bound, but Tiger Woods has shown the benefit of it.

"I don't know how long I'll go on. I have never set targets - I just want to keep playing and enjoying it."

With the help of improved technology Mark is averaging 285 yards off the tee, compared with 255 yards 20 years ago, but thinks the advances in equipment are slowing down.

"What we need to do is make sure that if a big-hitter is 40 yards off the fairway he is in deep trouble," he said. "We need progressive trouble with ditches and trees, not just longer grass, to give the shorter hitters a chance. If the wind doesn't blow in the Open at St Andrews the course will have no defence."

Finishing third in the 1981 Open at Sandwich was one of Mark's career highlights and he also finished fourth twice. His biggest thrill as a Ryder Cup player was contributing a singles win against Jeff Maggert to the 1995 victory at Oak Hill, while he also looks back very fondly on his time as captain at Brookline, although it was tarnished by the behaviour of the American fans, not to mention some of their players.

Clearly, he doesn't hold grudges and while he obviously relished seeing old pals at Slaley, particularly Torrance, he is looking forward to more opportunities to grow old gracefully in American sunshine.