You could really call this pet a shaggy dog

You say your golf game is going to the dogs?

Well, consider the case of Oscar, a 5-year-old Labrador retriever who lives near a course in Dunfermline, Scotland.

Chris Morrison, his owner, used to take Oscar for walks on the fairways and one day noticed that his mutt was, as he put it, “rattling.”

Further examination at a veterinarian led to surgery and that, in turn, led to a discovery that Oscar had been swallowing golf balls. Not one, not two, but 13.

“It was like a magic trick,” veterinarian Bob Hesketh told the Daily Telegraph. “I opened him up and felt what I thought was two or three golf balls. But they just kept coming until we had a bagful.”

The rattling has stopped. Oscar now wears a muzzle on his walks. He’s feeling up to par again.

Trivia time

“My old name was fine for a violin player but lousy for a golfer,” said Eugene Saraceni. What did he change it to?

Fight on

Dave Thomas of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram is already deep into NFL season form.

“If Reggie Bush doesn’t live up to the hype this season,” Thomas wrote, “we’re going to forget about investigating whether he got paid at USC and investigate whether he left his talent there.”

Packs a punch

The dangers of jogging came to the fore again last week when a 50-year-old man in Sunbury, Australia, was knocked down and pummeled by a wallaby. The victim is recovering at a hospital.

As for the critter, Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times wrote, “Police just hope they can get to him before Don King does.”

Clothes horse

Bernie Lincicome of the Rocky Mountain News keeps a close eye on politicians, so it came as no surprise that he had a take on former sportscaster Sarah Palin’s vice presidential nomination.

“It could only be worse if she had been a sportswriter,” Lincicome wrote, “because then she would not have known how to dress.”

Trivia answer

Gene Sarazen.

And finally

Toronto comedian Frenchie McFarlane was not surprised that his city lost its bid to play host to the 2012 world junior hockey championship. Said McFarlane: “Officials said Toronto already has enough amateur hockey.”

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grahame.jones@latimes.com