It May Be the Last Invitation He Gets

Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News is covering his first Masters and wasted no time taking a shot at Augusta National: “Good news: I’m pretty sure the lords of the Augusta National Golf Club just offered me a lifetime membership,” Kawakami wrote.

“Bad news: They think I’m Shingo Katayama, the cowboy hat-wearing Japanese Tour smoothie who received a fairly questionable at-large berth in this year’s Masters field.”

*

Bullish: Golf fans Down Under are hoping one of eight Australians playing in the Masters will do what Greg Norman couldn’t: become the country’s first to wear the green jacket.

However, of the eight, the Daily Telegraph in Sydney singled out Adam Scott as “our only genuine hope,” despite the backward roll he has been on at Augusta: ninth in his debut, 23rd in 2003 and a missed cut last year.

“If a ... stock was following a similar downward trend, you would be tempted to dump it,” the newspaper editorialized. “But it’s only a matter of time before the ultra-talented Scott stamps his authority in a major, and there’s no reason it can’t be this week.”

Phil, Tiger, Ernie and Vijay seem like pretty good reasons.

*

Trivia time: Which two teams failed to reach the playoffs the year after winning the NBA championship?

*

Check his pulse: After blowing a second save opportunity in two days against the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera said he was as sure of his abilities as ever.

“I won’t be living when my confidence is not there,” he told the New York Daily News.

*

Put in his place: Roy Williams is the toast of the town in Chapel Hill, N.C., now that he and his North Carolina Tar Heels have won the national basketball championship.

But in Lawrence, Kan., where Williams used to coach and was branded a traitor by some when he left, one need only to walk into the Downtown Barber Shop to see what they think of their former hero. The large oil painting of a smiling Williams now hangs on the restroom wall.

*

Looking back: On this date in 1991, jockey-turned-trainer Bill Shoemaker was paralyzed in an automobile accident.

*

Takes one to know one: Toronto Blue Jay pitcher Scott Schoeneweis, a former Angel, was targeted by a relentless heckler during a game at Tampa Bay this week. “I can’t believe that they think I’m a bum here too,” he told the Tampa Tribune.

Turned out the heckler was Billy Koch, a former Blue Jay who was released during the spring and apparently has too much time on his hands.

*

Trivia answer: The Boston Celtics, after winning their 11th title with Bill Russell in the lineup in 1969, and the Chicago Bulls, who won with Michael Jordan as their leader in 1998. Russell and Jordan retired after those championship seasons.

*

And finally: News of the theft of Mercury Morris’ duplicate Super Bowl ring -- the original was reportedly pinched in 1978 -- prompted Dan Daly of the Washington Times to write of the former Miami Dolphin: “It isn’t often nowadays an athlete has something like that swiped before he has a chance to sell it.”