Bernie was taken by complete surprise today when he sought out any photographs of England’s Richard Boxall with the Italian Open trophy.

For both Bernie and ‘Boxie’ it’s the first time both have been back to the Milano GC since 1990 when Bernie was reporting and then photographing his first Italian Open and with ‘Boxie’ capturing what would turn out to be his lone European Tour success.

‘Boxie’ could remember every detail of his splendid five shot victory including the reason why he wore a logo-free yellow shirt.

“It was the only shirt I had left to wear,” he said.

“But then early into the last round I saw my sponsor in the crowd and he was pointing to his shirt, and no doubt wondering why I didn’t have a shirt with his company’s logo.

“In the end he was fine and while I was worried about making a mess of the last and losing, I played this 5-iron over a hanging branch to reach the edge of the green but very well short but then managed to putt up to just a couple of inches.”

A check of Google reveals no photo of ‘Boxie’ with the trophy.

So Bernie sought out one of the club officials and in posting a picture on our Twitter page @tourmiss it suddenly dawned on him the member of the media, wearing glasses, and holding a camera over his right shoulder was himself – taken 25 years ago.

Richard Boxall wins 1990 Italian Open – now check out the person wearing the black shirt to the left of the TV cameraman.

Bernie (black shirt and wearing glasses) spotted in a 1990 photo held by the Milano GC & in his first visit back to Monza in 25 years.