She Must Have Been Hiding Aces in Her Ball Sleeve

Golfers who have played for years without a hole in one will be frustrated by this account:

A 49-year-old woman from Granite Bay, Calif., a 35-handicapper no less, shot three holes in one over five rounds between March 12 and March 20.

Jeanette Roberts has been playing for only four years. And she already had one hole in one to her credit.

The extraordinary string began March 12, when Roberts aced the 75-yard third hole at Granite Bay Golf Club with a pitching wedge.

She sank a nine-iron from 77 yards on the seventh two days later. She got her most recent hole in one March 20 with a nine-iron on the third hole. There reportedly were witnesses for every ace.

Her total scores on the three days were 101, 91 and 101, respectively.

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More aces: Wally Etterbeek, math professor at Cal State Sacramento, puts the odds of repeating Roberts’ feat in the neighborhood of one in 3 billion.

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Trivia time: What is the highest shooting percentage in a men’s Division I NCAA championship basketball game?

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Real cornhuskers: Reader Val Rodriguez offers this bit of nostalgia from a publication of the Corn Husking Tournament of 1935:

“Only the two Dempsey-Tunney fights, a 1929 football game in Soldier Field, Chicago, and an Indianapolis Speedway race ever exceeded the turnout of 110,000 persons for the big event of the ‘Corn Belt’ in Newton, Ind., Nov. 8, 1935, on Leslie Mitchell’s farm.”

Note: That 1929 football game in Soldier Field matched USC and Notre Dame before a crowd of 112,912. The Irish won, 13-12.

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Lumber problem: Seattle designated hitter Edgar Martinez, after a Mariners’ split squad showed up for an exhibition game in Mesa, Ariz., without any bats:

“I guess they’ll be getting a lot of take signs.”

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He’s a pest: Michael Jordan in ESPN The Magazine: “I don’t really dislike anybody in the league, but playing Reggie Miller drives me nuts. It’s like chicken-fighting with a woman. His game is all this flopping-type thing. He weighs only 185 pounds, so you have to be careful, don’t touch him. . . .

“He has his hands on you all the time, like a woman holding your waist. I just want to beat his hands off because it’s illegal. It irritates me.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1982, a freshman guard named Michael Jordan made a 16-foot jump shot with 16 seconds left to give North Carolina a 63-62 victory over Georgetown in the NCAA championship game in New Orleans.

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Trivia answer: Villanova, 78.6%, 22 of 28, against Georgetown in 1985. Villanova won, 66-64.

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And finally: From comedy writer Bob Lacey: “I hear the Green Bay Packers are so upset with Reggie White’s views on gays that they’re trying to trade him to the Boy Scouts.”