A Name That Will Live in Infamy

The heckler who was ejected from the U.S. Open for loudly suggesting that Annika Sorenstam would have hit a better shot than Vijay Singh had reinforces the contention of the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Paul Daugherty that Singh will never live down saying he hoped she missed the cut at the Colonial.

In fact, he believes Singh’s name will live in the infamy of lexicon.

“A male chauvinist will be known simply as a ‘Veej,’ as in ‘Did you see that guy take that woman’s seat on the bus? What a Veej.’

“The new term can also be used as a noun (‘Don’t go Vijay on me’) or a verb (‘Don’t Vijay me, buster’).”

Trivia time: What two brothers won the PGA Championship?

She’s out there: Thirteen-year-old Michelle Wie will become the first female junior amateur to compete in a men’s sanctioned PGA event when she plays with the guys in the Nationwide Tour’s Boise Open Sept. 15-21.

But she won’t be at much of a disadvantage off the tee.

Wie, who recently qualified to play in her second LPGA major -- the U.S. Women’s Open -- averaged 286.5 yards a drive while tying for ninth at the year’s first LPGA major, the Kraft Nabisco Championship.

That was six yards longer than anyone else in the tournament -- and would have led the PGA Tour in 1994.

Money matters: Wie can’t join the LPGA Tour until she’s 18, when she figures to make her home state of Hawaii even greener. Until then, she’ll work on her game.

But maybe she should be concentrating on business school instead of golf academies.

According to Golf Digest, PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchen had a pay package in 2001 of $3.17 million, which would have put him fifth on the tour’s money list for that year.

And he can’t even out-drive a 13-year-old girl.

Bumper bummer: Michael Pittman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faces charges after allegedly ramming his Hummer into his wife’s Mercedes, which prompted this recollection from the San Jose Mercury News’ Bud Geracie.

“Reminds me of the time I accidentally bumped my Ford Escort into our Nissan Sentra.”

Show me: You’ll have to excuse some Cincinnati Bengal fans if they reserve judgment on Carson Palmer. In 1992, the Bengals took quarterback David Klingler with the sixth overall pick in the draft. The team was 4-20 under his leadership. Akili Smith -- recently cut by the Bengals -- was the third overall pick in 1999 and was 3-14.

In four years, Smith earned about $12 million -- or $4 million per victory.

Fill in the blank: Not all the news descending on Sammy Sosa’s home island has been bad lately. Miss Dominican Republic recently won the Miss Universe title.

Trivia answer: Lionel and Jay Hebert.

And finally: Steve Hummer of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution suggests we should have seen the Sosa saga coming “as soon as we noticed that instead of a batboy, the Cubs were the only major league outfit with a team sommelier.”