Morning briefing

The walk is about more than golf

D.J. Gregory, 30, of Savannah, Ga., has a high golf handicap -- 36.

But, as Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle reported, Gregory has to play one-handed. That’s because he was born with cerebral palsy.

Gregory is at the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, walking the course every day. And he plans to walk every hole of every PGA Tour event through the Tour Championship. That’s 72 holes per week for 37 weeks.

When Gregory was 12, he befriended CBS’ Jim Nantz at a PGA Tour event in Greensboro, N.C. When Gregory came up with the idea to walk the 2008 Tour, Nantz took the idea to Commissioner Tim Finchem, who gave his official backing.

“It’s a good challenge for me to do 37 consecutive weeks,” Gregory says.

Because walking is difficult for Gregory, he occasionally falls down -- sometimes in the mud.

“Mark Twain said golf is a good walk spoiled,” Ostler wrote. “For D.J., golf is a great walk soiled.”

Trivia time

The Pebble Beach tournament was originally the Bing Crosby Pro-Am, which was first played in 1937 at Rancho Santa Fe Country Club in San Diego County before moving north later in the next decade. Who won the first Bing Crosby Pro-Am, and how much was the winning purse?

It’s ‘Ace’ for short

Jim Jacobs, 77, of Westlake Village, a retired television producer who played golf at Notre Dame, on Nov. 8 had a hole in one on the 184-yard 15th hole at Simi Hills Golf Course. He revisited Simi Hills for the first time since then Jan. 10 and on the 15th hole he got another hole in one.

They were his fourth and fifth aces in a lifetime of golf, but it had been 44 years since his previous one.

The guys in his regular golf group now call Jacobs, who carries a 12 handicap, “Mr. Double Ace.”

What a guy

Roger Clemens met privately last week with congressmen and women who will be asking him questions Wednesday under oath.

Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Calif., was quoted in Friday’s editions of the New York Times describing Clemens as “just sort of a gosh-darn kind of guy. Just the kind of guy you’d probably want to have as a next-door neighbor, I guess, if he didn’t hit a baseball through your window.”

Betting tips

The late W.C. Fields offered this gambling tip: “Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.”

Another tip: How do double your money at the racetrack? Fold it over, put it in your pocket and leave it there.

One fast cat

For those who prefer not to heed the above advice, the early 7-1 favorite to win the Kentucky Derby, according to BodogLife.com, is El Gato Malo. The horse won the San Rafael Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 12 by 6 1/4 lengths and set a blistering Cushion Track record of 1:33.37 for one mile.

But, as horse racing cynics say, “Time doesn’t mean anything unless you’re in jail.”

Trivia answer

Sam Snead was the winner in 1937, and he took home $500. Phil Mickelson won last year and took home $990,000.

And finally

When the USC and UCLA women’s basketball teams play host to Washington State and Washington today, pink will be the dominant color.

It has nothing to do with pink roses or Valentine’s Day. It’s part of the national “Think Pink” movement by a footwear company and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn. (WBCA) to raise money for the Kay Yow/WBCA Cancer Fund.

Coaches are wearing pink and even the referees are getting involved, wearing pink and using pink whistles.

larry.stewart@latimes.com