Their Terms in White House Were of the Fore-Year Variety

Eleven of the last 18 United States Presidents were golfers of one sort or another, according to James Apfelbaum of GolfWeek.

Warren Harding and Dwight Eisenhower were apparently the most serious. Harding turned the South Lawn into a driving range and tried to train his pet Airedale, Laddie Boy, to retrieve his shots. Ike left cleat marks in the Oval Office carpet.

“Harding had a Secret Service agent keep the bets,” Apfelbaum wrote. “Bets included a $1 penalty for hitting a bunker and $5 payoff for pars.”

More on Presidents: John Kennedy, according to press secretary Pierre Salinger, pressed bets at every opportunity and often needled opponents during a match.

“No more than four or five bucks were ever at stake,” Salinger said, but JFK played “as if it were the national debt.”

Trivia time: How many NBA championship teams have failed to qualify for postseason play the next season?

Slow learners: When several Portland Trail Blazers ventured into the lane during a recent game and had shots blocked by Manute Bol, the Philadelphia 76ers’ 7-foot-7 center said, “Don’t you guys get cable?”

Bol has blocked more than 2,000 shots in his career.

Overdoing it: Cal State Sacramento’s basketball team finished the season 3-24, prompting Coach Don Newman to comment: “You have to lose to appreciate winning. But you don’t have to test my character this much.”

Add Newman: The coach’s daughter, Chandi Lynn, plays on an age-group team. Upon his return from one trip, she greeted him at the door with the news of her team’s 12-11 victory.

“Daddy, we’ve already won more games than you,” she said.

Where are the now?Joe Bellino, Navy’s Heisman Trophy winner in 1960, runs a car-leasing business in Boston. He retired from the Navy with rank of captain.

True recognition: The U.S. Lawn Mower Racing Assn.’s national championship competition last year was named the “Worst New Sport of 1992” by Parade magazine. Gerry Smith, USLMRA president, was elated.

“We were thrilled to win.” he said.

So thrilled that the second annual event has been scheduled.

“People asked why we held the first race,” Smith said. “We said it was because we had a lot of free time. Now people ask why we are holding a second race. We have to do something with the (leftover) plastic racing flags.”

Trivia answer: Only one. The Boston Celtics, after beating the Lakers in 1969, finished sixth in the Eastern Division with a 34-48 record the next season and missed the playoffs.

Quotebook: General Manager Sandy Alderson of the Oakland Athletics, when told that Rickey Henderson might be baseball’s first $10-million player: “What’s he going to do, play for three teams?”