Another Piece of History Gets Stripped Away

Remember when the winner of the Tournament of Champions--now the Mercedes Championships--at Las Vegas’ Desert Inn course collected his $10,000 in silver dollars brought in a wheelbarrow? Well, according to Golfweek, the Desert Inn course will soon be ripped up to make way for yet another casino.

“This is the end of an era of tournament golf being played on the Las Vegas Strip,” said Charlie Baron, tournament director for Desert Inn events. “This is probably the birthplace of celebrity golf tournaments.”

The final event will be the LPGA PageNet Tour Championship in November.

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Trivia time: Who won the first Tournament of Champions?

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New name: Sacramento did such a good job with the Olympic track and field trials that Steve Brand of the San Diego Union-Tribune thinks the city should change its focus.

“Sacramento continues to struggle with its image,” he wrote. “It goes by Sacto, River City, Sacratomato, Sactown, Smackramento . . . you get the idea.

“Maybe they should consider Track Town. It’s a nice fit.”

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Cold scalpers: The Final Four isn’t the only NCAA tournament that sells out. The latest is the Frozen Four, the men’s 2001 Division I hockey championships in Albany, N.Y.

Fair warning: Ticket applications for the 2002 finals in St. Paul, Minn., will be accepted beginning next April 5.

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Enough is enough: Not everyone was taken with the nonstop TV coverage of the British Open at St. Andrews. This is how TV writer Chuck Finder of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette felt about it:

“We heard too much about the Claret Jug. We heard too much about this being the millennium Open, which, to be accurate, tees off next July. We heard too much about this place being the home of golf.

“But this coronation of Eldrick [Tiger Woods]? We got almost enough. . . . The ratings proved that America cannot get enough.”

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Stern talk: The slide of the Oakland Athletics has not been lost on Manager Art Howe.

After the happy-go-lucky team lost another game, the low-key Howe told reporters, “These guys have to realize this isn’t Club Med.”

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Goose it: Two infield geese at Canterbury Park, the racetrack in Shakopee, Minn., were killed and three were injured when race horses ran over them.

Turf Paradise in Phoenix has had similar problems but doesn’t anymore.

According to jockey Mike Ziegler, “The geese in Phoenix are trained now. When they see someone coming, they move off the course immediately.”

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Now that’s fast: Baseball Hall of Fame member Cool Papa Bell was said to be so fast that he could turn off the light switch and get into bed before the room was dark.

To which comedy writer Jerry Perisho added, “Prior to this, the fastest thing known on Earth was a Dodger fan leaving the stadium in the top of the seventh inning.”

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Trivia answer: Al Besselink, in 1953.

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And finally: South Carolina football Coach Lou Holtz trumpeted, “We have the greatest fans in the world. We raise more money per win than any school in the land.”

Holtz’s Gamecocks were 0-11 last season.