Beman Had Lockjaw Once, Too

When Mac O’Grady refused to talk to the media after taking the lead in the Byron Nelson tournament, he faced a fine from PGA Commissioner Deane Beman.

According to Skip Bayless of the Dallas Times Herald, O’Grady was the first tournament leader since 1971 to refuse to talk to the press. The name of that golfer?

Deane Beman.

Another golfer who wasn’t talking this weekend was Laura Davies of Great Britain, runner-up in the Hennessy Cup at St. Cloud, France.

Davies was fined $60 for wearing “scruffy” trousers. Officials of the Women’s Professional Golf Assn. said the trousers were “detrimental to the image” of women’s golf.

Davies, 21, broke down and cried as she received her second-place prize. Asked about it afterward in the press tent, she broke into tears again and walked out.

Northern Dancer, winner of the 1964 Kentucky Derby and the most successful stallion in history, is still going strong at age 24.

One-time breeding rights to the sire recently brought $1 million, and one of his sons, Snaafi Dancer, was sold for $10.2 million two years ago and has yet to race.

“For all intents and purposes he seems to be at the peak of his powers,” said Joe Hickey, manager of the farm where Northern Dancer stands in Lexington, Ky. “We keep his book to 35, about 10 mares less than average, to prolong his life, hopefully.

“He thinks everything that goes on is for his benefit. He thinks every mare that comes up in a van is his mare. We have seven other stallions, but he rules the whole show.”

How-times-have-changed dept.: From a UPI story on the first round of the LPGA tournament at Suffolk, Va.: “Amy Alcott, the defending champion, finished with a three-under-par 69 along with five others.”

One of the “others” was Nancy Lopez, one-time queen of the tour, who didn’t get a mention.

Said former Cleveland Browns Coach Sam Rutigliano, applauding Peter Ueberroth’s efforts to rid baseball of drugs: “It’s a bold decision. He’s causing a lot of people to do Fred Astaires. Shuffle their feet. If you want to clean the problem up, you have to go for the jugular vein.”

How bad is the problem?

“When we took road trips,” Rutigliano said, “we found out that drug dealers were following us in the next plane that took off behind us and that they had reservations at our hotel.”

Quotebook

Tony Kornheiser of the Washington Post, on today’s Pat Ewing lottery: “I’ve got to admit I’m rooting for Sacramento. I know how long they’ve waited for an NBA champion.”