AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2006 > May > 30 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USFor what it’s worth …
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
… and then some: Let’s see, if we Americans are to continue to follow our sporting games, we must get better acquainted with the pronunciation of some puzzling names. The Cubs started a pitcher Sunday named Jae Kuk Ryu (pronounced “You”); the LPGA tournament was won by Hee-Won Han; there are six Kims playing the LPGA Tour, and another coming along, Song-Hee Kim, who won the Underwood Futures Championship, all of which makes the PGA Tour’s Aaron Oberholser sound rather commonplace… . And whatever became of Keith Clearwater?
• These golfers who turn 50 and move from the PGA Tour into the Champions Tour usually break out in a rash of winning, as did Craig Stadler, Peter Jacobson and just the other day, Jay Haas in the Senior PGA Championship. Wonder if a handicap system shouldn’t be a way to even the playing field for the first couple of years?
• Divorce is breaking out among golf professionals, and among the upper level. It was a shocker when Greg Norman announced that he and Laura are breaking up, joining an all-star lineup of Fred Couples, Seve Ballesteros, Colin Montgomerie and on the LPGA side, Annika Sorenstam. You’d have thought that the worst part of it would have been behind them. The Normans’ two children are 23 and 20 years old.
• It ain’t Notre Dame, but I guess you’d say that George O’Leary has completed the comeback from the biographical glitch that cost him the job in South Bend. A 10-year contract at Central Florida is pretty good assurance that he has finally righted his craft.
• Oops! Apologies to Charismatic, who came within 30 yards of completing the Triple Crown in ‘99, then was sold to breeding interests in Japan. He has not been reduced to drayage, as I suggested the other day, but is still busy in the breeding shed, according to Cot Campbell, a man who should know. Dogwood Stable raced Preakness winner Summer Squall, who sired Charismatic.
• In the rating system of Blackie Sherrod, the retired Dallas columnist, he saw only one old Southwest Conference player better than Doak Walker. He was a linebacker: Tommy Nobis, a Texas Longhorn before he became a Falcon.
• A San Francisco company put up a $100,000 check for the ball that became Barry Bonds’ 715th home run. A man standing in line at a beer counter had it roll off a ledge into his unsuspecting hands. He had 24 hours to claim his prize, last I read.
• The golfing pastor from Cullman, Ala., Bob Kurtz, has another feather to put in his halo. Starting at 5:21 in the morning, he played 168 holes by 7:38 at night, and he wasn’t just hacking away. He played one stretch of 18 holes in 63. Lest you forget, Kurtz was once a sportscaster on WCNN before turning to the ministry at St. John’s Church in Cullman.
• Jack Nicklaus has spread his course designing wings to Croatia, the 28th country for him. It was a deal made at the highest level, signed with the prime minister.
• Some off-the-wall airline statistics: The wingspan of the Boeing 747 is wider than the Wright brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk was long; American Airlines said it saved $40,000 a year by putting one less olive in salads, and think how much Delta has saved by no longer serving courtesy drinks in first class. In fact, no first class, all business elite up front.
• Shoeless Joe Jackson’s last house has been moved from the mill village in which he grew up to a site next to the new ball park, home of the Greenville minor league team. It will be converted into a baseball museum.
• Wait a minute, what’s this? The NCAA has approved four more postseason bowl games, which makes 32, if I’m not missing something. Four more that will only have to blush when they refer to themselves as “bowl teams.” Where in heaven’s name are they going to find eight more teams without taking some that only break even?
• Keith Jackson retiring again. How many retirements do you get?
Selah.
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