Tuesday, April 7, 1998 | 9:04 a.m.
Three weeks ago John Daly hit five balls into the water and needed 18 strokes to complete a par-5 hole during the final round of the PGA Tour's Bay Hill Invitational.
Last Saturday, Fulton Allem carded a 13 and Scott Verplank an 11 on the par-5 15th hole during the third round of the Freeport-McDermott Classic.
In 1927, Tommy Armour established a tour record that still stands, taking 23 strokes on a hole in the Shawnee Open.
So here's the question put to Las Vegan Stu Reid, who has served as a rules official in the U.S. Open: Is there ever a point at which an official would feel the need to intervene and ask a struggling player to try another club or take another route around a hazard? Or, if Reid had been officiating Daly's group at Bay Hill, how many balls would he have let the frustrated golfer hit into the water before suggesting he try another approach?
"As tempted as I might be, I don't think I could ever intervene unless the golfer was purposefully hitting balls in the water," Reid said. "My personal feeling is that unless the golfer has totally given up, I'd stand there and watch. As an official, you can't give advice, so as long as he was trying to play the hole you have to let him play it his own way."
He added that a player intentionally hitting balls in the water could be disqualified.
There probably won't be any 18s or 23s at The Masters this week, although the greenskeeper at Augusta National has tried to toughen the course after many felt it was becoming "obsolete" as the result of so many big-hitting young players and equipment changes. So, to keep the guys like defending champion Tiger Woods from launching one 340-yard drive after another, it appears as if Augusta National will be mowed toward the tees -- a trick that was utilized in 1992 and resulted in players losing 10 yards off their drives. ... One third of the players in this year's Masters were born outside the United States. ... Woods, by the way, ranks a lowly No. 95 in putting after finishing a so-so 60th last year. ... Former Masters champion Ben Crenshaw was the only player on the PGA Tour last year who did not play the collective par-5 holes under par. ... Soccer star Eric Wynalda, who lives in Las Vegas, was hurt over the weekend and likely will miss a month of training time with the U.S. national team that is preparing for the World Cup. Wynalda injured his left knee. ... TV commentators working figure skating events generally look the other way rather than criticize competitors, yet that wasn't the case during Saturday's World Figure Skating Championships in Minneapolis. When France's Laetitia Hubert fell, as she apparently has many times before, an announcer referred to her as the "human Zamboni" for all the time she spends sprawled on the ice.
It appears as if major-league umpires are calling more outside strikes. ... The major leagues have added some great new parks in recent years. ... Bench warmers have already admitted they're bringing opera glasses and binoculars to scout "the talent" in the swimming pool beyond the right field fence at the new Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix. ... One older stadium, at Anaheim, has a completely different appearance after a $115 million face lift. Edison International Field, as it's now known, is dazzling compared to its "predecessor." ... ESPN's Joe Morgan is the finest baseball broadcaster on TV. ... It's easy to marvel at knuckleball pitchers like Tampa Bay's Dennis Springer, whose tosses to the plate don't crack 55 mph on the radar gun. ... Thirteen players in the majors had more walks than strikeouts last season. ... Houston's Craig Biggio went to the plate 658 times and did not hit into a double play in 1997, but he grounded into one Opening Day. ... A record 317 players are making at least $1 million this season playing baseball. ... Current salaries of local players in the majors: Atlanta pitcher Greg Maddux, $9.6 million; Minnesota outfielder Marty Cordova, $2 million; Minnesota pitcher Mike Morgan, $1.3 million; Montreal pitcher Mike Maddux, $225,000; and Chicago catcher Tyler Houston, $225,000. UNLV alumnus (and Arizona third baseman) Matt Williams gets $4.5 million.
Until this season, the last time the NHL had at least two goalies reach double figures in shutouts for a single season was 1973-74 when Philadelphia's Bernie Parent and Chicago's Tony Esposito did it. But this low-scoring season has seen Buffalo's Dominik Hasek and New Jersey's Richard Brodeur already record 10-plus shutouts and Dallas' Ed Belfour has nine. ... You really have to know your hockey to answer this one: Who has scored the most goals in the NHL since the 1994-95 season? The answer is the fairly unsung Peter Bondra of Washington. He has 48 this year and 181 in the past three-plus seasons. ... They've slumped a bit of late yet the Los Angeles Kings are safely in the playoffs after a five-year absence. This is the same Kings team that Sports Illustrated ranked 26th and last in its preseason forecast. ... There was some poetic justice when Tom Penders was forced out as head basketball coach at the University of Texas. For years, Penders enjoyed seeing his name circulated as a potential candidate whenever a prominent coaching position came open; he welcomed the publicity even if he wasn't interested in the job. ... Clyde Drexler will retire as a player after the current NBA season and he should talk one of his illustrious Houston teammates, Hakeem Olajuwon, into joining him. Olajuwon is no longer one of the league's great centers. ... Much has been said and written of late about the dearth of major or even mid-sized boxing cards in Las Vegas, but the truth is the casinos are doing so well economically that they've lost interest in what could be termed non-essential self-promotion.
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