Golfer Knows He’s Not Really in the Rough

Former PGA champion Mark Brooks doesn’t like hearing fellow golfers complaining about how hard they work.

“It doesn’t ring well,” he said. “A guy works hard, that’s fine. But there are people that make $20,000 a year that actually do work hard. They go in a coal mine at 4 a.m. and come out at 7 at night.

“I mean, hitting a bunch of golf balls and working out in a posh gym and getting a massage and taking a whirlpool and going home and driving your nice car back to your nice house. Man, keep it in perspective.”

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Trivia time: How many U.S. riders won the Tour de France before Lance Armstrong?

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Lucrative shoes: The base salary of Herb Sendek for coaching North Carolina State’s basketball team is $128,750, but with his Adidas shoe deal, his net worth comes to $716,250.

No swooshes for the Wolfpack.

Why? One day last week, Don “Snowshu” Thompson hit a golf ball off the tee at 44 courses over a 12-hour period.

Thompson, 70, began the day at 6:47 a.m. at the D’Andrea Ranch course in Sparks, Nev., and ended at 5:58 p.m. at Brookside in Reno. In between he hit one shot each at courses in Carson City, Genoa, Dayton, Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Calif., and Portola, Calif.

He might have had 47, but three private courses turned him away.

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Always hungry: British Formula One journalist Mark Hughes, on the escalating costs of fielding a team on the Grand Prix circuit:

“That’s just the way technology is, a monster that grows when you feed it money.”

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Raider look: Tom FitzGerald points out in the San Francisco Chronicle that game balls for the new XFL will be silver and black.

“Uh oh, are Al Davis’ attorneys warming up on the sidelines?” FitzGerald wonders.

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Oh, those Met fans: One of the signs at Shea Stadium intended for John Rocker was supposed to read: “How do you spell ignorant? R-O-C-K-E-R.” The word was spelled “ingnorant.”

That’s not nice: When Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom referred to the Lakers’ postgame celebration, he called it the “Set a Fire if You Love L.A.” party.

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None and none: From Larry Guest of the Orlando Sentinel: “Color me amused by Charles Barkley’s criticism of the L.A. Clippers on draft night. Somebody please remind Sir Charles that he and the Clips have the same number of championships.”

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Close your eyes: The British tabloids had a field day with the male streaker who pranced around Anna Kournikova’s court on Monday when the 19-year-old Russian was playing doubles.

“Quick Kourni . . . Kova your eyes.” said the Mirror.

“No Peeping, Anna,” said the Daily Mail.

“Anna can’t look,” said the Sun.

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Looking back: On this day in 1933, the first major league All-Star game was played at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The AL, managed by Connie Mack, defeated the NL, managed by John McGraw, 4-2, on Babe Ruth’s two-run homer.

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Trivia answer: One, Greg LeMond in 1986, 1989 and 1990.

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And finally: After hitting his tee shot into the rough during the Irish Open, Jose Maria Olazabal snapped his driver over his knee and threw the shaft into a trash car.

“I didn’t think I’d banged it that hard and I wasn’t intending to break it,” Olazabal said. “But the shaft must have been really weak. They don’t make them like they used to.”

For the record, Olazabal still made birdie.