It Took a Little Extra for Him to Join Club

Gary Player’s title in the Caribbean Classic, his 16th on the senior tour, brought a measure of fame to the putter he bought while shopping in downtown Tokyo with Arnold Palmer in 1961.

Said Player: “I saw this putter in a barrel, and it had a $5 tag on it. And this one guy heard me say, ‘Gee, I love this putter.’ But Arnold said, ‘Let’s try some others and come back.’

“When I got back, I took the putter out and there was a six in front of the five. That salesman had ears like a hawk.”

Add Player: He said he almost always uses his $65 bargain putter, and added:

“If I putt badly, I know it’s me, not the putter. It’s like your wife, it’s a marriage. If I had to choose between my wife and my putter, well, I’d miss her.”

Trivia time: Name the only two drivers who have won the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500.

Psst , don’t jinx him: Rick Solvason, who plays for Northwest Nazarene College, was wondering what all the fuss was about when officials interrupted Northwest Nazarene’s game with Western Baptist in Nampa, Idaho, Friday night.

He had just broken a 30-year-old NAIA record by sinking his 46th and 47th consecutive free throws.

Said Solvason: “Nobody ever told me anything about it. I was surprised when they stopped the clock. I thought there was a malfunction.”

Character builder: In a column on Georgetown basketball Coach John Thompson, Mike Littwin of the Baltimore Sun wrote: “To the athletes he recruits, Thompson is teacher, surrogate father, adviser, disciplinarian, big brother and IN CHARGE OF EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IN HIS LIFE.”

Littwin quoted an article by Pat Jordan in the current issue of Gentleman’s Quarterly, in which David Robinson, who played for Thompson on the 1988 Olympic team, says: “Thompson was a dictator. You had to go his way. It was always his gym, his team, his this. . . . He wants you scared of him. He degrades you. He told me I couldn’t play. I said, ‘OK, that’s fine. I can’t play.’ He didn’t understand I could be devoted to the game and still have other interests. He was used to having kids for whom basketball’s everything. He gets into your mentality with the mind games he plays.”

Gates of Hell: When Atlanta was awarded the 1996 Olympics last September, Washington Post correspondent Tony Kornheiser suggested that the city’s airport could prove daunting to unwary visitors.

Kornheiser wrote: “Atlanta’s airport is God’s way of saying ‘Take Amtrak.’ If I had a dollar for everyone who had to sleep in a heap on the Atlanta airport floor because he couldn’t make his connection, I’d bid for the Games myself. Atlanta is probably the only airport in the world that sells pajamas.”

Victor’s spoils: Football historians and statistic freaks will be hard-pressed to find anyone who ever outdid Victor Barnes, a kick returner for the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

In a 44-21 victory over Kearney State last fall, Barnes staked Nebraska Omaha to a two-touchdown lead before it ran a play from scrimmage.

He returned the opening kickoff 94 yards for a score. On Kearney’s first possession, it could not move the ball, and Barnes took the ensuing punt 79 yards to score again.

Trivia answer: Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt. Andretti won the Daytona 500 in 1967 and the Indianapolis 500 in 1969. Foyt won the Daytona 500 in 1972 and the Indianapolis 500 in 1961, ‘64, ’67 and ’77.

Quotebook: Rochester (N.Y.) Times-Union columnist Bob Matthews, on pitcher Jim Palmer’s comeback attempt: “I think a 45-year-old man doing underwear commercials is even more amazing.”