Going in Coach Is More Like First Class

John Madden, who travels by motor coach, got a new one shortly after he went from Fox to ABC, and now has another new one as he heads into his first season at NBC. It features a master bedroom/bathroom with a steam shower, full kitchen with granite flooring and countertops, high-definition plasma TV screens, and a TracVision mobile satellite TV antenna.

“We used to have to stop to set the satellite antenna to watch TV,” Madden said. “Now the TV is on all the time.”

Nice to hear that problem got taken care of.

Trivia time: Among NBA guards who have made at least 50 field goals in the NBA Finals during their careers, who has the highest percentage?

A pair of aces: According to the Scotsman newspaper, Chris Tugwell, 25, who had never had a hole in one, recently had two only five holes apart -- on the 157-yard seventh hole and the 168-yard 12th at Bruntsfield Golf Course near Edinburgh.

The odds of one golfer getting two holes in one in one round, according to Golf Digest, is 67 million to one.

Another pair: At a recent Armenian Trex Fraternity charity golf tournament on the No. 2 course at Brookside in Pasadena, Greg Avedesian and Joe Elias each had a hole in one on the 155-yard 10th hole and won $10,000.

Avedesian used an eight-iron, Elias a four-iron.

Driving a la cart: A Minnesota man has been charged with criminal vehicular operation and driving while impaired, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported, after he allegedly ran over his playing partner with a cart during a booze-fueled round of golf in Cottage Grove, Minn.

Added Dwight Perry of the Seattle Times: “Defense lawyers are reportedly scrambling to get the playing partner declared a loose impediment.”

The man who was hit by the cart was cut and bruised and suffered an injured eye.

Cutting to the chase: Reader Jim Fisher, responding to a recent Morning Briefing item about rock, paper, scissors ending up on television, said A&E; did recently carry taped coverage of a $50,000 tournament held in Las Vegas in April.

Fisher, noting the show included “strategy tips,” asked, “There’s a strategy to rock, paper, scissors?”

Lighting ‘em up: In his regular-season Canadian Football League debut with the Toronto Argonauts last weekend, Ricky Williams ran for 97 yards.

Said John Salley on FSN’s “Best Damn Sports Show Period”: “You see how fast Ricky was running? He was smoking.”

Looking back: On this day in 1999, the San Antonio Spurs became the first former ABA team to win an NBA championship by defeating the New York Knicks, 78-77, in Game 5 of the Finals.

Trivia answer: John Paxson of the Chicago Bulls, with a percentage of 59.2% (71 of 120).

And finally: It was hot in New York last week, prompting CBS’ David Letterman to say, “It was so hot in New York that Ben Roethlisberger was wearing nothing but a helmet.”

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Larry Stewart will be on vacation until July 17.