Pros from Dover

[Dave Wilton]

> > A subscriber has asked about "pros from Dover", which he has found
> >  in the Tom Clancy book "Rainbow Six" and which seems to mean
> >  experts. I know that it was used in the 1970 Robert Altman film
> >  M*A*S*H. Can anyone take it back further or give me a pointer to
> >  where it might have come from?
>
> You didn't give the context of either quote, so the following
> is a guess:

The context of the M*A*S*H usage is that Hawkeye and Trapper are called to
Tokyo to perform minor surgery on a congressman's son. They view the trip
primarily as a way to get in a golf outing. They call themselves the "pros
from Dover" and show disdain for the Tokyo hospital staff.

I inferred (without evidence) that it had something to do with golf. Is
there a famous golf course at some place named Dover?

> Dover is the name of a publishing company that for over half
> a century has
> been turning out high-quality paperback reprints of mathematical and
> scientific books.  It is a pretty safe bet that any given
> expert in math,
> physical sciences, or engineering has several dozen Dover
> reprints in her or
> his home library.

Good guess. Do they do medical books? Militating against it is the sense of
troubleshooting consultant rather than written authority.