Golfer Wins While Stuck in the Rough

“You gotta have heart,” says the song, but Hubie Smith, Tennessee’s senior PGA player of the year, proved that you still can win even if you are a little short.

Smith recently won the two-day Harold Eller Pro-Am while lying flat on his back in a hospital, suffering from chest pains caused by blockage in one of his arteries.

He shot a tournament-leading 67 on opening day but was forced to withdraw the next morning.

When the second round was canceled because of rain, tournament officials ruled out Smith’s withdrawal and declared him the champion.

“It’s the first tournament I ever won from intensive care,” he said.

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Puffing away: A Pygmy soccer tournament in Cameroon aimed at helping the country’s threatened Pygmy population attracted only about 50 spectators for the final game at Yaounde’s sports stadium. The Pygmies, who stand about 5 feet tall, went away happy, however, with an ample supply of cigarettes from the tobacco company that sponsored the tournament.

They puffed through 16 200-cigarette cartons a day, according to the organizers.

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What’s next?The memorabilia craze is going in all directions.

The University of Nebraska is offering chunks of turf from the Nebraska football field where the Cornhuskers played from 1984 through last spring’s intrasquad game. The school is installing artificial turf.

And stock car racing fans are being offered a desk trophy created from portions of tires that have been used in Winston Cup races. LucasSport even offers certificates of authenticity as to which race the tire was used in.

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Trivia time: Can a pitch in the strike zone be legally called a ball--other than when an umpire misses the call?

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Tells it all: Fight fan Terry Halden of San Francisco, after watching his town’s favorite fighter take a beating: “Irish Pat Lawlor couldn’t get his hands up in a holdup.”

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Two-way pitcher: Rich Brady was 5-0 with a 1.78 earned-run average as the right-handed ace of Holy Ghost Prep in suburban Philadelphia. He was also 2-0 with a 0.80 ERA as the team’s ace left-handed pitcher.

“I’ve never seen anything like him,” Holy Ghost Coach Ted Grabowski said. “I think he’s equally good from both sides.”

Brady can switch from one side to the other during the same inning, but he cannot switch against the same batter.

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Trivia answer: Yes, if it bounces in front of the plate first. But if a batter swings and hits a bounced pitch, it is in play.

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The best: Tommy Hawkins, the former basketball player who now is a Dodger executive, has seen Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, but he still believes that his old teammate, Elgin Baylor, is the best of all.

“I played with Elgin for six seasons and against him for four and I happen to think that, pound for pound, no one was ever as great as Elgin Baylor,” Hawkins told Lyle Spencer of the Riverside Press-Enterprise.

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Quotebook: Catcher Darren Daulton of the Philadelphia Phillies on teammate John Kruk, the portly first baseman who leads the National League in batting: “Like they say, it ain’t over till the fat guy swings.”