It’s Not Easy to Hide in Kelly Green

Masters champions are allowed to keep the famed kelly green jacket for one year.

That’s it.

It can be a nerve-racking year because there would be one thing worse than losing the jacket . . . explaining it to Masters officials.

Which is why 1987 winner Larry Mize was not comfortable with checking the jacket through to Houston. The other choice was not a good one, either.

“I would have felt like an idiot walking on the plane with a green jacket,” Mize told Brian Hewitt of Golfweek.

“You know, ‘Hi, I just won Augusta. Who’s sitting next next to me?’ ”

He gambled and the checked jacket made it through to Houston.

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Trivia time: When was the last trade between the Dodgers and Angels?

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Break point: A Tennessee Tech player, upset over a point in a singles match with an Austin Peay player, is said to have become a little physical.

Tennessee Tech’s Gustavo Castro reportedly threw a punch at Steve White, then followed him off the court and tried to hit in the head with his racket.

Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner Dan Beebe said it was the first such incident he has dealt with involving tennis players: “But my general rule has always been if you take a punch at someone, you are gone at least one game. I don’t care if it landed or not.”

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Ode to Jeff: To say that Diane and Walter Witt are fans of Jeff Gordon is putting it lightly.

Their Johnson City, Tenn., home features checkered flags and rainbow banners and a sign calling it “Jeff Gordon Boulevard.”

Several life-size cutouts of a smiling Gordon and a 9-by-7-foot oil painting of him and his rainbow-colored, No. 24 Chevrolet Monte Carlo also adorn the porch.

But there are standards. Diane Witt planted flowers in the shape of a “24” in the front yard but promptly removed them when they started to wilt.

“I won’t do anything to disgrace him,” she said.

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Andy speaks: Former Ohio State linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer has ended his silence, realizing his press snub last season may have been a mistake.

“I think that hurt me because then they had their own free will to write whatever they wanted instead of my word and my opinion,” he said. “In a way, it hurt me more than anything.”

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Seattle swoon: Glenn Nelson of the Seattle Times on the badly struggling SuperSonics: “The SubSonics officially are has-beens. . . . Their presumed saving grace will be the return of Vin Baker and Billy Owens [from injuries], their two biggest sources of disappointment so far this season. That’s tantamount to flushing money down the toilet to stem a spending problem.”

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Trivia answer: On March 21, 1976, the Dodgers traded Orlando Alvarez to the Angels for Ellie Rodriguez.

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And finally: Running back Ricky Williams, on rumors that New Orleans Saint Coach Mike Ditka will trade all his draft picks to get him: “That would be great, but I’m afraid I’d be the only one at rookie camp.”