Odds & Ends from the Around the Wonderful World of Golf

Since we're kind of in between big tournaments and earth-shaking happenings in the golf world, I, like any seeker of invigorating content in a chosen subject, have unearthed a few oddments worth reporting.

"The King" Steps Down

Arnold Palmer recently announced he'll no longer play tournament golf. The 77-year-old halted his outstanding career after hitting two balls into the water on the fourth hole in the Administaff Small Business Classic, a Champions Tour event in Spring, Texas. Palmer continued playing with Lee Trevino and John Mahaffey, but didn't keep score the rest of his round.

"I've been doing this for a long time and, first of all, to stand out there and not be able to make something happen is very traumatic in my mind," Palmer said. "The people, they all want to see a good shot and you know it and you can't give them that good shot. That's when it's time."

Palmer's eyes welled with tears as he was interviewed after the round. "I made every move in the bag today to make a good shot, and I wasn't very successful," he said. "That's not surprising. It just didn't come today. It's been working its way into my repertoire. It's tough and it's emotional for me because it's my life."

After bagging his first big victory in the 1954 U.S. Amateur, Palmer became a pro and quickly elevated the PGA Tour to major sport status. More importantly, the man known around the world simply as Arnie has been a beacon of light for the American people - and golfers everywhere - for half a century.

Palmer won his first tournament - the Canadian Open - in his initial year, 1955, on Tour. In 1958, he donned the first of his four Masters' green jackets. He also won a U.S. Open championship and two British Opens, with the PGA Championship the only major missing from an otherwise impeccable portfolio. His emotional "charges" down the closing holes of golf tournaments led to 92 titles in professional national and international competitions. Sixty-two of the victories came on the PGA Tour, with another 10 on the Champions Tour, the over-50 circuit he pioneered almost single-handedly.

Perhaps most importantly was Palmer's innate connection with his fabled "Arnie's Army," which numbered in the millions because of his widespread admiration. A bad word was rarely - if ever - said about Arnold Palmer, either by the sporting or general public, a rarity for an athlete of his stature.

Palmer connected on a direct-eye-contact level with fans like no other elite athlete has before or since.

While media director of the Fred Couples Invitational in the 1990s, I eagerly anticipated Palmer's acceptance of Boom-Boom's request to play in the two-day tournament. After Palmer completed his final round, walking a hilly course on an uncommonly sweltering summer day in Seattle, I related to him in the locker room that a media throng awaited and asked if he might answer some questions. Sweaty and exhausted, he could have politely demurred. Instead, the classy icon said, "Give me a minute to collect myself."

After quickly downing a couple of Dove bars and three ice-cold beers, Palmer instructed, "Let's go." For 90 minutes, including 40 minutes in the direct sunshine with a rookie Japanese radio reporter, "The King" calmly and thoughtfully held court. I thought to myself, "This guy is a very special person."

That sympathy was shared by millions, and it's too bad this illustrious era of golf has come to an end.

Fairbanks' Foxy Lady

A golf ball-thieving fox is hounding players at North Star Golf Club in Fairbanks, Alaska. Dozens of golfers, along with Nancy Duso, a worker at the nine-hole layout, have watched the fox make off with dozens of golf balls this summer.

One golfer had seven balls stolen by the fox during his round. "She followed him from the sixth hole all the way to the ninth hole," Duso said of the fox. "He came in and said (owner) Roger (Evans) owes me a sleeve of balls for this."

Golfer after golfer has returned to the clubhouse with fox tales. One of Duso's favorites is the woman tourist who had a ball stolen by the fox and asked Duso to sign her scorecard, "The Foxy Lady." Another story is when a Fairbanks golfer put eggs out in the fairway in an attempt to trick the fox. Not a good idea, but the sly animal swiped both his golf ball and the eggs.

"It's like she's trained," Duso told Tim Mowry, reporter for the Daily News-Miner. "She waits for the sound of golfers teeing off and she runs out and gets the ball."

Two players, Tom Curry and John Holland, have had several encounters with the fox, with both losing five balls to it. Curry got so annoyed one time that he chased the animal into the woods to get his ball back, which he did.

"It just follows you around and takes every ball you hit," Curry said. "It's pretty weird." There are times when the fox "sits like a dog on the green waiting for us to hit the ball to him." The fox stole 11 balls in 25 minutes one night, according to one report Curry heard. "In the last month he's been getting more aggressive."

Why the Fairbanks Fox is gathering up golf balls is a matter of conjecture. "They must have some retriever instinct in them or something," one local player said.

Bob Hunter with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game told reporter Mowry that he suspects the similarity between eggs and golf balls has something to do with the thievery. "I have heard similar stories back east where there are a lot of golf courses," Hunter said. "Probably what the fox is cuing into is the similarity of an egg to a golf ball and is caching them somewhere to eat."

Curry chased the fox and eventually retrieved his ball from the fox's den, where he discovered a pile of 10 stolen golf balls. "Most of them were chewed on," Curry noted. He then happened upon a cache of 30 to 40 balls in another spot. "I'm hoping to find the mother lode and get some balls out of the deal," the 63-year-old retired railroad worker said with a laugh.

Some players believe there are actually two foxes involved: one with a white-tipped tail on holes six, seven and eight, and another with a black-tipped tail on the ninth. "We think it may be a he and she working as a tag team," said one player.

Another golfer tried to see whether offering a dinged-up "sacrifice" ball would assuage the fox's thirst, hoping the animal wouldn't take his good one. That didn't work either as the fox took them both.

Geoff Lowery, who's had several balls swiped during Alaska's brief but glorious golf season, senses the fox is messing with Fairbanks' hackers. "Now it seems like it's almost taunting people," Lowery said. "It will steal someone's ball and just wait for the next people to come, like a dog."

Fish and Game's Hunter said the fox may simply be entertaining itself. "Like a lot of other canids, I'm sure they've got their own sense of humor. Maybe they just think it's fun."

Wonder if John Daly Will Be a Guest Professor

In an effort to formulate "socially elite" graduates, a Chinese university is making golf compulsory for some students. A game previously considered a symbol of Western decadence, golf has taken off in Communist China since the country's first course opened in the early 1980s.

Management, law, economics and software engineering students at Xiamen University in China's southeastern Fujian province will be required to take a course in golf "to achieve their elite ambitions," according to the China Daily newspaper.

Though some opponents have declaimed the sport as improper in a country where so many people live in poverty, others have characterized golf as a healthful social activity. "Golf is not only good exercise but will teach students communication skills and benefit their future careers," the paper quoted the university's president Zhu Chongshi as saying. "The highest embodiment of the education system is producing socially elite people with the best education."

"The aim is to help the students find good jobs," commented Chen Xiao, a sports processor at the school. "Many Chinese business deals are clinched on golf courses."

The paper indicated that the university has drawn critics for its inclusion of golf in the curriculum. "To try to make golf compulsory is rather vulgar," said Alex Jin, president of the Center for International Education Group. Instead of promoting golf to select students, Jin reasoned that some regions of the world's most populated country need investment in better primary health care.

. . . and from Our Venezuelan Friends

One of President Bush's biggest and most vocal thorns in his rear end, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, is a friend of golf. Chavez and his administration are attempting to waylay a proposal by the mayor of Caracas to convert the city's three golf courses into public housing.

The country's national government formally objected to an order from Caracas mayor Juan Bareto for the "forced acquisition" of the courses under eminent domain. Barreto said the courses would provide valuable land to build homes for the poor.

Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said Chavez's government "does not share the decision adopted by the mayor." Rangel said the courts must rule on the seizures first.

City attorney Juan Manuel Vadell said the golf course owners have 30 days to appear before the mayor's office and file their appeals.