This Grand Slam Is Really More of Grand Illusion

Although neither can win the grand slam this year, Tiger Woods and Karrie Webb can each still win three major tournaments.

Next week Woods hopes to add the PGA Championship to the U.S. Open and British Open titles he won. (He is also the defending PGA champion). Webb, who has already won the Nabisco and U.S. Women’s Open titles, began the defense of her du Maurier championship Thursday.

Which begs the question: Can any golfer win all four majors in a single year?

“I never say never to anything, but I think it is a long stretch of the imagination,” Webb said. “It’s high odds that one player is going to like all four courses in one year, and then peak at the right time.”

Woods thought the goal was attainable after winning the 1997 Masters. But he recanted after tying for 19th in the U.S. Open and tying for 24th in the British Open that year.

“Realistically,” he said, “it’s almost next to impossible to win all four.”

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Trivia time: Who has the season record in the NASCAR Winston Cup point standings?

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That’s not fair: Nebraska will open the college football season ranked No. 1. But defending national champion Florida State also has reloaded.

Florida Times-Union columnist Gene Frenette writes the Seminoles are so deep in offensive linemen that senior Char-ron Dorsey has asked Coach Bobby Bowden to redshirt him if he has to sit behind All-Atlantic Coast Conference tackle Tarlos Thomas.

“Here’s the most agile and athletic of FSU’s offensive linemen--a 6-7, 350-pound power forward who dazzles the Seminoles’ basketball players with his quickness in pickup games,” Frenette said. “And all the [football] coaching staff can guarantee him now is a part-time gig.”

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Batman: Ryan Jones has done something Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth and Mark McGwire haven’t--hit four home runs in a game.

The former Irvine High standout, playing for the Winnipeg Goldeyes in the independent Northern League, hit two solo shots, a two-run homer and three-run homer in the Goldeyes’ 19-1 rout of the host Sioux Falls Canaries on Tuesday.

“I don’t even think I’ve ever hit four homers in Nintendo,” said Jones, who drove in eight runs.

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The latest punch line: Boxing aficionados are not exactly drooling over Saturday’s Evander Holyfield-John Ruiz fight for the vacated WBA heavyweight title. But Ruiz said those who tune in will get their money’s worth.

“It’s going to be one of those fights you better watch,” Ruiz said. “It’s going to be a fight that goes back and forth because Evander has a lot of heart and so do I. One thing for sure is neither one of us will back down.”

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Add boxing: Veteran referee Steve Smoger told writer Jim Trunzo it’s not a good idea to have referees score the fights they work.

“A good referee is so busy worrying about safety and helping make the fight a good bout by keeping the action flowing that how a referee would have time to score too, is beyond me,” Smoger said.

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Trivia answer: Jeff Gordon holds the modern record with 5,328 points in 1998. Richard Petty totaled 8,701.40 points in 1972 before NASCAR changed to the present scoring system in 1975.

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And finally: Newsday columnist Steve Jacobson on Darryl Strawberry: “Maybe someone can explain why we liked him when he gave so many reasons why we shouldn’t.

“In times of tragedy it’s considered bad form to dwell on the flaws. In Darryl’s life the flaws were inescapable. The bad always came with the good.”