Finding Herself in the Trees, She Did Tarzan Act

Golfer Helen Alfredsson of Sweden had an interesting first round at the Women’s British Open, and an especially adventurous time on the 355-yard third hole, a par four that doglegs its way uphill.

Her description matched her effort.

“I hooked my three-wood off the tee and played a provisional ball, but we found the first ball in sticky bushes, so I went in there, butt first, and chipped out,” Alfredsson said.

“I had a four-iron to the green, but I topped it back into the trees and played another provisional. Then I did my Tarzan act in the jungle for a while, found the first ball and [took a penalty stroke] to play it from the original spot on the fairway. I figured I should be able to do it right the third time and I hit it onto the green--I took a five-iron this time--and two-putted from about 24 feet.

“After all the shots I hit, a seven sounded like a bargain because I was beginning to think I might not finish at all.”

*

Trivia time: When Nolan Ryan became only the fifth player to have his number retired by two teams, who were the other four?

*

Indifference: Oakland has baseball’s worst attendance mark, with the A’s averaging only 13,260 a game. The San Francisco Chronicle’s Steve Kettmann believes fans’ disillusionment with the sport is not the reason.

“So,” wrote Kettmann, “how about this for a fresh theory: People are lazy, amazingly lazy, so lazy that they can’t come out to the ballpark to watch Mark McGwire take a credible shot at Roger Maris’ imagination-igniting record of 61 homers in a season.”

*

Delicacy? The clear winner for the most disgusting food at a baseball stadium goes to Colorado’s Coors Field, where they sell something called Rocky Mountain oysters.

Trust us, you don’t want to know.

*

Just move, baby: The San Francisco 49ers are considering abandoning their training camp at Rocklin, Calif., for cooler pastures. Where would Carmen Policy, the team president, like to go?

“I would go so far as to tolerate being in close proximity to the Raiders’ training camp if we can go to Napa,” Policy said.

*

Sinking feeling: Golfer Laura Davies agrees that women do not putt as well as men, but claims there is a good reason.

“It’s because of the quality of the greens we play on,” she said. “Ours vary so much, it’s hard to improve. The men’s tour provides them with good greens all the time. That’s why they are better.”

*

Trivia answer: Hank Aaron, Casey Stengel, Rod Carew and Rollie Fingers.

*

And finally: Todd Martin, commenting after Andre Agassi was thrown out of a tennis tournament at Indianapolis last week:

“I think it is a gentleman’s game . . . I don’t think too many people think that cussing and throwing rackets are gentlemanly.”