Better for an Elk to Be a Leopard Than a Chicken

Golfing legend Jackie Burke Jr., who has been tutoring Steve Elkington in Houston, gave this advice to the reigning PGA champion:

“Keep your head up. Everything in the world with its head down gets eaten. Chickens, hogs, cows. Every time you see a leopard, his head is up, isn’t it? You don’t see any leopards getting eaten, do you?

“No gloomy guy dragging around looking at his shoe-tops ever won anything worth winning.”

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Trivia time: When was the PGA Championship last match play?

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Bruin bonanza: Athletes from UCLA, past and present, accumulated 10 gold medals during the Atlanta Olympics. Only five countries--the United States, Germany, China, France and Italy--had more.

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The Bruin champions: Sheila Cornell, Lisa Fernandez, Dot Richardson, softball; Gail Devers, 100 meters, 400-meter relay; Joy Fawcett, soccer; Karch Kiraly, Kent Steffes, beach volleyball; Reggie Miller, basketball, and Annette Salmeen, swimming.

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Opposite views: Councilman Nick Vehr of Cincinnati is bidding for the Olympic Games in 2008 for his city, an idea that doesn’t thrill Enquirer columnist Laura Pulfer.

“Is Nick Vehr out of his mind?” she wrote. “Traffic jams, $15 burgers, a bomb, wall-to-wall people [in Atlanta]. And he wants to do the same thing to Cincinnati? Just think, if he gets his way, you too can commute with 5 million visitors.”

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Good advice: Cleveland pitcher Orel Hershiser, asked if he thought trading Carlos Baerga to the New York Mets might change the Indians’ team chemistry, replied, “Winning is what breeds good chemistry.”

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High praise: Stirling Moss thinks Damon Hill is a better driver than his two-time world Formula One champion father, Graham Hill.

“I think Damon is better than a lot of people thought possible, myself included,” the legendary British driver said. “And I think he is better than his father.”

But is he better than Germany’s Michael Schumacher?

“He’s not in the same class, but neither is anyone else.”

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For the record: Reader Ken Krupnick of Upland reports an omission from the list of Southern Californians voted into baseball’s Hall of Fame--Rollie Fingers of Upland High.

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Second best: Olympic swimmer Amy White cringes every time she sees the Nike commercial that says: “You don’t win silver, you lose gold.”

“I am insulted every time I see it,” White said. “They are slapping every athlete and every country that doesn’t win gold in the face. That’s not the spirit of the Olympics.”

White said her 1984 silver medal in the 200-meter backstroke was the accomplishment of her life. She was 15 when she finished less than a second behind Yolanda de Rover of the Netherlands.

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Trivia answer: 1957, when Lionel Hebert defeated Dow Finsterwald, 2 and 1, at Dayton, Ohio.

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And finally: Manager Cito Gaston of the Toronto Blue Jays, asked to assess pitcher Erik Hanson: “He’s been throwing 30-foot changeups in the dirt. Only the worms swing at that.”