Rates Go Up on the Back Nine of a Major

A hole-in-one at the local muni might not cost you more than four beers, and you get to drink one.

At a posh club in England, you could spend close to $1,000 buying champagne for everyone in the clubhouse.

And in Japan, an ace can cost -- or earn -- you big money.

The caddie expects a bonus of at least $85 and everyone in the group -- or everyone playing if it’s a company outing -- customarily receives a present. One one-swing wonder treated more than 200 people to a dinner cruise on Tokyo Bay to celebrate.

Insurance against aces is one reason about 2 million players hold golf policies with Japan’s biggest casualty insurer. For 12,000 yen (about $102) a year, the policy provides $1.69 million in liability coverage, $760,000 against injury to the insured, $3,800 for damage to equipment and a $4,200 payoff for a hole-in-one.

Not exactly a new car, but a nice down payment.

Trivia time: Which Cameroon national team soccer player has a name that unemployed Joes everywhere can relate to?

No way, Jose: A Miami-Dade County commission committee recently adopted a measure to prevent naming streets after convicted felons, which means the end of Jose Canseco Street in Miami.

“He’s pretty much just thumbed his nose at the law,” Commissioner Joe Martinez told the Miami Herald.

“He was a great baseball player, but it’s more important to have good moral character.”

Obviously, Canseco has the wrong kind of street cred.

Sticky situation: The San Francisco Chronicle’s Scott Ostler was outraged at the ignominious end that befell former Kentucky Derby champion Ferdinand, who was “glue-factoried by his Japanese owners.”

He says they deserve to find a “surprise on their pillows.”

But he wasn’t so upset that he missed the chance for this line: “Someone will write a best-seller about Ferdinand, and that noble steed will become the first great sports champion to bind his own book.”

Chump change: Jack Whittaker, who took home $113 million after claiming the cash option of Powerball’s richest jackpot ($314.9 million) last Christmas, recently used a slice of that dough to buy and refurbish a dirt racetrack in Beckley, W.Va.

The Beckley Speedway now has new bathrooms, concession stand, lights, sound system, safety improvements and a grandstand seating 8,000.

Officials declined to say how much he paid for the track, but for Whittaker, it had to be dirt cheap.

Trivia answer: Joseph-Desire Job.

And finally: Rickey Henderson drew a lot of unwanted attention from opposing pitchers during his stint with the Newark Bears before the Dodgers brought him back to the major leagues.

One opponent was so worried about Henderson stealing second base, he made him lunge back into first nine times without delivering a pitch to the plate.

Finally, Henderson yelled: “Would you just throw the pitch already? It’s muddy over here. Just stop it. Please! I’m not going to steal, OK? I promise.”