Morning briefing

Banner year for Furyk

Golfer Jim Furyk had the best drive of his career Monday, without using a club.

Furyk, in Fort Worth preparing to play in the Crowne Plaza Invitational, stopped off to thank Scott and Michelle Marlow for a “We Furyk” banner on display at their home near the Colonial Country Club since before last year’s event.

Furyk told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that he saw the banner every day last year but couldn’t stop by, as he was involved in a playoff. “So I kind of waved from the car as we drove by and thought I’d stop by and say hello this year,” he said.

Furyk considered the gesture par for the course, but it did cause a stir. He knocked on the door and told the family baby sitter, “I’m Jim. I’m the man on the sign.”

Michelle Marlow said, “I ran into the foyer and started jumping up and down saying, ‘Jim Furyk! Jim Furyk!’ ”

Furyk resisted the temptation to say, “Just playing through.”

Trivia time

What was the last team to win a series from the Lakers after losing Game 1?

Getting floored

Kansas officials, with Jayhawks fans still basking in the NCAA basketball championship, will turn some hardwood into some hard cash, as they purchased the floor used at the Final Four, the Lawrence Journal World reported.

Larry Keating, senior associate athletic director, said, floor would be “cut in pieces and sold as replicas of the tournament. There’s been a lot of interest from Kansas fans.”

Certainly more than there is from UCLA, Memphis and North Carolina fans.

Irish green

The Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal Gazette reported this week that Notre Dame paid Charlie Weis a base salary of $598,000 for the 2006 season. Meanwhile, deposed coach Tyrone Willingham received $650,000 for the university.

Seems fair. Weis did go 10-3 with Willingham’s players.

Cup fever

The Detroit Red Wings’ Dallas Drake did an interview with WXYT-FM in Detroit that may make the keepers of the Stanley Cup a bit nervous.

Q: And when you get the cup, you get to do disgusting things to it. Drink out of it, swim with it and drive it around your lake. The Wings did some crazy things with the cup.

Drake: I’ve heard some nasty stories. I’m not going to go that far with it.

Q: Dallas! You’re going to do some disgusting things with it!

Drake: If I get an opportunity to get it, you’re probably right.

Honks

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is running a graphic showing the Red Wings logo as a tire losing air with the words, “Deflate Detroit,” prompting the Detroit Free Press to demand retaliation from readers:

“Time to step up, Wings fans. So get your Photoshop, paint and other image programs ready! We’re looking for fans to submit their own Wings poster images. It could be pro-Wings or anti-Penguins (they started it).”

Don’t you just hate that type of heavy-handed (Let’s) hometown (go) reporting (Lakers)?

Trivia answer

The Phoenix Suns in 1993. The Suns lost the first two, then rallied behind Charles Barkley to win the five-game series.

And finally

The Dallas Cowboys’ Terrell Owens, asked Wednesday about being in the last year of his contract while some teammates received extensions, told the Associated Press, “Not a problem. Honestly, I don’t really feel like it’s hanging over my head. I just don’t really think about it. I haven’t thought about it until somebody brought it up.”

OK, who is this guy and what has he done with Terrell Owens?

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chris.foster@latimes.com