To Duval, Tiger Is in No-Win Situation

Golfer David Duval believes the media should back off forcing Tiger Woods to pressure Augusta National into admitting women as members.

“Regardless of the position he takes, he’s wrong,” Duval said.

“He’s not ever going to be right unless he agrees with the party that is really upset. He’s entirely in a no-win situation that way.”

Woods has said he believes the exclusive Georgia club should admit women, but he has also said that, as a private club, it has the right to establish its membership policies.

“He’s 26 years old,” Duval said. “Let him play golf. I imagine you will see him take positions here and there, but I don’t think his focus right now should be on social change and social influence. He’s just starting his career.”

Trivia time: Since 1986, Notre Dame has gone 29-1 in football against Army, Navy and Air Force. Which was the last service academy to defeat the Irish?

No problem here: The University Interscholastic League, the governing body for high school sports in Texas, recently conducted a statewide survey on the use of steroids and whether standard testing was needed.

According to the UIL, most responding school districts felt any testing should be handled locally, and that fewer than 20% of the districts do testing.

“The superintendents believe there is not a significant problem,” said Charles Breithaupt, the UIL’s athletic director. “They think it can be dealt with through education.”

Flag on the play: Mitch Albom in the Detroit Free Press on San Francisco 49er Terrell Owens pulling out a pen and autographing a ball after scoring a touchdown: “You can call me square, flat, unhip, old-fashioned, old-school, no cool or dull. When writing utensils become part of your football gear, things have gone too far.”

Team overboard: Tom Shatel of the Omaha World-Herald, after Nebraska’s first football loss to Oklahoma State in 41 years.

“The Huskers are in uncharted waters, lost at sea, with a boat full of holes, no compass, no idea where they’re going or how to get there. They are impostors with amnesia who woke up with nobody to tell them where they are.”

On this day in baseball: Carlton Fisk hit a home run in the bottom of the 12th inning and Boston defeated Cincinnati, 7-6, in the sixth game of the 1975 World Series.

It’s a dull world after all: Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Terrence Moore isn’t impressed with Edison Field:

“There are few things I enjoy more than a stadium, ballpark or arena, complete with beauty, history and mystique.

“So this has been an ugly stretch for a guy who just saw the inferior replacement to the Big A in southern California.

“The new place is called the Big Ed, as in Edison Field, or as in boring.”

Trivia Answer: Air Force, 20-17, in 1996.

And finally: Rick Telander, of the Chicago Sun-Times, on new NCAA President and CEO Myles Brand: “Brand could be a guy who makes it clear that something has to change in big-time college sport. Or at least he can make it clear that something ought to change.”