HEY, WILLIE! Doug Sanders let one slip away in Pensacola

HEY, WILLIE!

I really enjoyed your article (Sunday, April 19) on one of my favorite golfers, Doug Sanders. You mention he had 20 wins on tour, but if not for an over-eager official, it probably would have been 21.

In 1966, at the Pensacola Open, Doug opened with a 61 and followed it up with a 63 on Friday. On that Friday, my class of pre-flight cadets was assigned the duty of being course marshals. Since I was the only cadet in our class that knew anything about golf, I assigned myself with Sanders’ group.

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When Doug was finished, a crowd of people gathered around him to get autographs. He was busy signing when an official came up and took his scorecard and turned it in. Unfortunately, Doug had not yet signed his card and when it was realized, he was disqualified. I believe he was either 6 or 8 shots ahead of the field. Thus, his 21st win was (probably) taken away.

RAY

HEY, RAY!

Given the stories you always heard about Doug Sanders, it might not have been autograph seekers that distracted him, but a potential fourth Mrs. Sanders.

Either way, thanks for forcing me into our newly sanitized Research Chamber, where I discovered that Doug was actually up by four shots through two rounds when he inadvertently took the weekend off in Pensacola.

HEY, WILLIE!

Great article on Doug Sanders. Always enjoy your column. Hope we have the pleasure of watching college football this fall. Keep up the good work.

BARRY M

HEY, BARRY!

Barring a viral comeback later this year, I was feeling fairly confident that we’d surely be ready to roll once football season arrived.

But last week we learned that a group of college football’s conference commissioners told the White House task force there would be no college football unless there is open college campuses.

Will that happen by Labor Day? Is some places, it certainly will. In all places? Not so sure. There was, however, this chuckle-inducer, courtesy of American Athletic Conference commish Mike Areso.

“We were able to talk about the differences between us and professional sports,” Aresco said. “We talked about how academics and college athletics were inseparable.”

I wonder if anyone has trotted that philosophy past Nick Saban. And you wonder why Areso’s American Conference isn’t among the Power 5.

HEY, WILLIE!

Kudos to the Daytona Tortugas for their “virtual opening day”recently.

Question. When is our first virtual Thirsty Thursday? My problem is, the only dollar beer I can find comes in a red, white and blue can.

RANDY

HEY, RANDY!

There’s also a can with a mountain on it that you can probably get for a buck, maybe less if you buy in bulk. Or so I’m told.

HEY, WILLIE!

Here’s an idea to streamline the baseball season if they play it without fans for TVaudiences only.

Televise the games on about a five-minute delay, edit out the pitches that don’t result in a hit ball, walk or strikeout, and they could get two or three games in a typical three-hour broadcast. Those are games I’d watch!

MIKE

HEY, MIKE!

That five-minute delay would be used up before the catcher adjusts his cup for the first time.

How about televising games during the day, chopping out all the between-pitches stuff (except arguments, brawls and replays of great plays or bad hops to the aforementioned cup or lack thereof), getting each game down to about 30 minutes, and airing them at night?

That’ll probably be the routine in about 50 years, so might as well test-drive it now.

Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com