A Day for Those Who Love USA and Hyperbole

Bob Ryan in the Boston Globe: “Who knew golf would be like this? Golf. The ‘Good Walk Spoiled.’ Golf. The alleged sport of the privileged and the elite. Golf. The sport for fat people, skinny people, uncoordinated people, and just plain unathletic people.

“Those who believe those things will always believe them. The rest of us know better. The rest of us know that what took place at the Country Club [Sunday] was one of the most spectacular, rewarding, and, to use for one of the few times in an appropriate context, unbelievable athletic events ever to take place in Brookline, Greater Boston, Massachusetts and--who knows?--the United States of America.”

Don’t hold back, Bob. Tell us what you really think.

Trivia time: What is the Pacific 10 Conference football record for most points by a losing team?

Chauvinism: Tim Cowlishaw in the Dallas Morning News: “If the sporting world hadn’t figured it out by now, 1999 belongs to Texas and Texans.

“The Stanley Cup in Dallas. The NBA title in San Antonio. The WNBA championship in Houston. Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France. Finally, this improbable record-setting comeback [in the Ryder Cup] produced by [Justin] Leonard’s hot putter.”

Leonard and Armstrong are Dallas residents.

Hit the ball! From the Morning Line column in the Dallas Morning News: “NBC’s Dick Enberg gets credit for the line of the weekend, referring to Padraig Harrington’s ridiculously long Ryder Cup pre-shot routine. Said Enberg: ‘He gives a new meaning to the Boston Marathon.’ ”

He did what? Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Kevin Costner told the Boston Globe he threw an 88-mph pitch while warming up to shoot ‘For Love of the Game.’ And you thought he was unbelievable as Eliot Ness.”

Bronco woes: Jim Armstrong in the Denver Post: ‘Terrell Davis is on pace for 2,000 feet. . . . There is no controversy. I repeat. There. Is. No. Quarterback. Controversy. Mike Shanahan is sticking with Brian Griese until he wins a game or completes a pass beyond 20 yards, whichever comes first.”

Ugly Ducks? Dwight Jaynes of the Oregonian after Saturday night’s USC-Oregon game: “The Ducks, whose uniforms look even blacker during night games than they do in the daylight, were experiencing a dark night until their bright finish.

“It’s easy to figure out who is going to like Oregon’s new uniforms, by the way. Anyone over about 35 hates them, and everyone under 22 loves them.”

Trivia answer: Arizona, 55, in losing to California, 56-55, in four overtimes in 1996.

And finally: Because of a warning for Tropical Storm Gert, there were only about 100 people in the stands at Miami’s Pro Player Stadium recently when the Marlin-Expo doubleheader started.

Florida’s Dennis Springer was about to go into his windup in the first game when he actually heard a cell phone ring.

“It was kind of crazy,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “I should have stepped off and yelled, ‘Hey, turn it off!’ ”