Shots Are Off, but He Knows When to Hit

John Daly didn’t play very well in Melbourne--or did he?

He shot himself out of contention for the big prize money in the Australian Open with an 80 in the third round Saturday.

Fortunately for Daly, he showed considerably more skill at a casino’s blackjack table the night before.

Daly, in a two-hour visit to the High-Rollers Room at the Crown Casino, is said to have won $187,500. That’s after he won $10,000 on each of the previous two nights.

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Add Daly: This week, Daly is entered in the Greg Norman Classic in Sydney, where a new casino has opened.

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Trivia time: Who was Northwestern’s coach when it made its first Rose Bowl appearance in 1949?

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Second choice: Northwestern wasn’t the Big Ten champion when it defeated California, 20-14, in the 1949 Rose Bowl game.

The Wildcats came into the game as the Big Ten’s second-place team.

Michigan, with a 9-0 record, not only won the Big Ten title, but also repeated as the Associated Press national champion. However, the Big Ten had a no-repeat Rose Bowl rule at the time, so Michigan, which routed USC, 49-0, in the 1948 game, stayed home.

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Weigh scale? NBA officials are seeking a new agreement with the league that would make them the highest-paid arbiters in sports.

Orlando Magic owner Rich DeVos believes that they should be the highest paid. “They work harder than anyone else,” he said. “Baseball umpires look like they get paid by the pound.”

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Is he worth it? After Ottawa ended a nine-game losing streak with a 3-3 tie against Boston on Saturday night, Senator fans reacted to the firing of Coach Rick Bowness during the slump.

Some fans carried a large banner demanding that Ottawa General Manger Randy Sexton be traded for water bottles.

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Selling point: Marketing slogan of the International Hockey League’s expansion San Francisco Spiders: “A hockey team that’s brutal on the competition and easy on the wallet.”

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Easy to remember: Ground was recently broken for the Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix, future home of the Arizona Diamondbacks. It’s already referred to as “Bob.”

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FYI: USC has a 4-0 record against Northwestern, and hasn’t played the Wildcats since 1969, a 48-6 victory at the Coliseum.

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Looking back: On this day in 1966, the Washington Redskins defeated the New York Giants, 72-41, setting an NFL record for most combined points, 113, in a game.

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Trivia answer: Bob Voigts.

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Quotebook: Minnesota Viking quarterback Warren Moon on turning 39: “My age is convenient. It motivates me and mesmerizes people. If I have a bad game, someone will say, ‘Only 340 days until he’s 40.’ ”