Field Might Be in the Dark at Hazeltine

The last time the U.S. Open was played at Hazeltine, in 1970, Dave Hill got most of the headlines when he said, “What this course lacks is 80 acres of corn and a few cows.” But Jack Nicklaus was nearly as critical.

Nicklaus called playing it like “blindman’s buff” that “has no definition.” That was before the tournament, and then proved his point with an opening-round 81.

The Open returns to Hazeltine Thursday and Nicklaus is still not sure about it. After playing a practice round there last month, Nicklaus told Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune writer Curt Brown that “No. 16 will be the most controversial and dangerous hole, but that doesn’t make it a good hole. They should have let it flow naturally.”

Add Hazeltine: The 16th hole calls for a tee shot that must carry nearly 200 yards over Lake Hazeltine, followed by a difficult approach of about 120 yards onto a peninsula green. All along the right side is a marshy lakeshore.

“Everybody’s going to have troubles with No. 16,” Nicklaus added. “I think that’s going to be a very pivotal hole in the tournament.”

Accident report: A few days after race driver Ted Prappas crashed during practice for the Indianapolis 500, his foot continued to bother him, so when he came home to Los Angeles he went to his doctor to check on it.

“The nurse asked me if I’d been in a car accident, and I answered, ‘Well, sort of,’ so she gave me a report to fill out. I left out the ‘description of accident’ part, figuring I’d just explain it to the doctor. The nurse insisted, so I wrote, ‘Spun, hit Turn Four wall with left front of car, going approximately 200 miles per hour.’

“She took one look at it and yelled, ‘What?’

“Then I told her, ‘Well, I was at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.’ ”

Trivia time: Which is the only major league team that has never finished last?

No wonder: Creighton softball pitcher Kelly Brookhart got a sore tongue during a 31-inning game in which she shut out Utah in a Western Athletic Conference tournament. Her explanation: “I lick my fingers between innings.”

Prime ribbing: About 45 minutes after the Phillies’ Tommy Greene pitched his no-hitter in Montreal, the phone rang in the Phillies’ locker room. A French-sounding caller was on the phone, asking for Greene.

“Hello, this is the prime minister of Canada and I just wanted to congratulate you,” the caller said. “And I’d like to meet you.”

Greene was impressed. “Yes, sir,” he said. “I have to check our schedule first.”

Then relief pitcher Roger McDowell began to break up. It turned out that he had talked a Montreal clubhouse attendant into making the call.

Lost idols: When Al Unser Jr. was growing up, his racing idols were “my dad, Uncle Bobby, A.J. Foyt and Gordon Johncock . . . until my first race, at Riverside in 1982. I lapped A.J., I lapped Gordon and I passed my dad. It was like I lost something. It was the day I knew I was one of them.”

Trivia answer: The Kansas City Royals, who are struggling to get out of the American League West cellar.

Quotebook: Met catcher Mackey Sasser, on how he knew his wife was in labor: “I called the doctor and he told me the contraptions were an hour apart.”