07/04/05 Vijay Singh and other things

I was just watching Vijay Singh hitting a shot in the US Masters golf tournament and an old anecdote came to mind. It all began with a golf joke. However some crucial golf knowledge has to be explained before the joke can be, ahem, fully appreciated. This does seem a desperate state of affairs, but please bear with me here...
Anyway, what you need to know is that the very well known English golfer Nick Faldo was noted for employing a female caddie who went by the name of Fanny Sunesson. ok?
So I told my dad (another keen golfer) this joke.
Me ; "Have you you heard that Vijay Singh has married Nick Faldo's caddy?"
Dad ; "No I hadn't..."
Me ; "Yes, he's made her Fanny Singh"
Ok not the most brilliant of jokes, but fairly amusing.
Anyway, a few months afterwards, I was up in St Andrews with my Dad at the Open Golf Championship. We were sitting in a beer garden having a spot of lunch when we were joined by an elderly American couple. We talked a bit of golf, discussed various players, predicted the winner etc and eventually Vijay Singh's name came up.
At this, my Dad immediately piped up and asked the American couple if they'd heard that he had married Nick Faldo's caddy.
I was somewhat startled at the appearance of this joke set-up. It didn't seem the right material to pitch at a very prim and proper elderly American couple. This was going to be a disaster. To make matters worse, the punchline, rude as it is, will be misinterpreted. It will translate that Vijay has been practising energetic anal sex on Nick Faldo's caddy, to such a degree that her anus "sung" with pleasure.
I looked quizzically at my Dad attempting to put him off delivering the punchline.
Remarkably, the joke just turned into a surreal conversation on Vijay and Fanny's married life together. My Dad had remembered the story, but had forgotten that it was told in the context of a "joke" (I use the term loosely).
We discussed whether Nick would be jealous ; the ethics of your caddy and principal confidante forming a liason with a sporting competitor ; how interesting it would be if Faldo and Singh were involved in a tense play-off for a Major Championship etc etc
At this point I was in acute physical pain. I needed to laugh out loud for a long time but had to suppress it till they left, heading back to the US to pass on this interesting piece of golfing trivia.
I spent the rest of the day giggling quietly to myself and attracting bemused looks from fellow spectators...