GOLF / THOMAS BONK : This ‘Investigative’ Reporting Might Be Out of Bounds

Does a person’s golf game tell anything about the golfer? It’s an interesting question, one that makes “The Golf Verdict on O.J.” in the coming Golf Digest interesting reading.

Author Alex Shoumatoff, who has developed a journalistic style he calls “investigative golf,” interviewed some of O.J. Simpson’s golfing partners from Riviera to try to find out something about the sports icon accused of murdering Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

Shoumatoff also made some observations in the golf-related areas of Simpson’s alibi.

--The defense said Simpson was practicing chipping with a three-wood on the grass of his Rockingham estate about the time he is accused of the slayings. Chipping with a three-wood? At night? Shoumatoff said Simpson’s alibi easily could have been checked by looking for the divots.

--The defense said Simpson was so arthritic he was “perhaps one of the few people in the world” with a medical reason to ride a cart at Pebble Beach. However, carts are common at Pebble Beach.

For what it’s worth, Simpson’s handicap of eight still is posted in the Riviera clubhouse.

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Try the McHaggis: There are some U.S. players who simply don’t play in the British Open.

Why not? It might be the food.

Mike Donald played in the British Open for the first time last year at Turnberry, Scotland, where the hotel food wasn’t quite what he, his wife and daughter expected, according to Golf Digest.

“We go in there one night and order a club sandwich and after a while, they get it right,” Donald said. “Then we go in there the next night and say we want the exact same thing and it comes out completely different. Different bread, different cheese. And I’m like, ‘Oh, man, don’t you get it?’

“Then you order milk and it’s warm, and I just don’t think that’s very sanitary.”

For the rest of the week, the Springers drove 40 minutes to a McDonald’s.

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FYI: Byron Nelson, 83, shot a 77 Thursday in 101-degree heat at the Cottonwood Valley club in Irving, Tex.

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Headache: The John Daly watch continues. Daly has been experiencing headaches that caused him to skip two tournaments, but he is expecting to be ready for the British Open, beginning Thursday on the Old Course at St. Andrews, Scotland.

Daly, a recovering alcoholic, said he has not had a drink for more than two years. He said the headaches may be related to drinking.

“In going through sobriety, people have told me they’ve had headaches for a two- or three-year period,” Daly said. “They’ve also said it could be stress-related or nutrition-related.”

Daly was recently pictured in a newspaper advertisement for a Mississippi casino, the ad saying he had won $100,000 playing slot machines.

“I gamble for fun and pleasure,” Daly told the Memphis Commercial Appeal. “It’s the most relaxing thing I do beside playing guitars. It’s not out of control, if that’s what people are saying. I’m not going to quit.”

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Aim for the middle ground: President Clinton has a new weapon in his golf bag, the Associated Press reported. It’s a driver called the “Peace Missile,” made from Russian nuclear missile parts.

Golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., who designed the first 18-hole golf course in Russia, said a friend there gave him the club to deliver to Clinton.

Said Clinton: “It will be really interesting to see if the ball goes left or right.”

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Golf notes:

The United Pegasus Foundation’s first charity golf tournament will be played Monday at Via Verde Country Club. The foundation provides care for unwanted horses. Details: (818) 452-8461. . . . The Encino course in the Sepulveda basin, which was badly damaged by heavy rain and closed for eight months in 1992, and damaged again by flood waters and closed to 18-hole play since January, is getting close to reopening again, according to course manager Jim Dodds. “We expect to have the full 18 holes ready by mid- or late summer,” Dodds said. Unlike Balboa, no reservation cards are needed to get a tee time. It’s $10.50 during the week and $5.50 for replays. For weekend play, it’s $13 and $7.50.

Fifteen former PGA champions will participate in a clinic Aug. 8 at Riviera, the site of the PGA Championship, Aug. 10-13. They are Nick Price, Raymond Floyd, Jack Nicklaus, Paul Azinger, John Daly, Lanny Wadkins, Wayne Grady, Payne Stewart, Jeff Sluman, Larry Nelson, Bob Tway, Hubert Green, Hal Sutton, David Graham and John Mahaffey. . . . Tom Lasorda, Don Newcombe, Bill Russell and Steve Garvey are among those who will play in the second Jackie Robinson celebrity golf classic, July 31 at Wilshire Country Club. The event benefits the Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship and Leadership Development Program. Details: (310) 444-7000.

Geoff and John Champlin of Amarillo Country Club were the first-flight winners at the Sunset Hills member-guest event. Other winners: Frank Mattraw and Tom Lewandowski, second flight; Charles Callihan and Mark Josephson, third flight; Pat Devries and Bill Lundey, fourth flight; Chuck Billings and Dick Radenbach, fifth flight; Chuck Poole and Guy Plummer, sixth flight.