Dad Is Always Cleaning Up After Little One

Troy Stuart knows what it is to face a media frenzy, and he didn’t even do anything. But his son Matthew made a hole in one on the Fox Ridge course in Vincennes, Ind.

Matthew is 5 years old. Playing for only his fifth time, he aced the 86-yard, par-three seventh hole, using his driver from the women’s tee.

While Matthew played video games and street hockey the next day, his father was left to deal with the media--newspapers, magazines, TV and radio interviews. The calls started at 6:45 a.m. and followed Stuart to his job.

“All this has been a little bit much for him to comprehend,” Stuart said of his son, who will enter kindergarten in the fall.

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Trivia time: Who are the only two players to win every major but the PGA Championship?

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Good thinking: Formula One driver Mika Hakkinen, after winning five races and leading in series championship points: “Success usually brings a lot of confidence in a driver, and you have to keep a balance, because otherwise it’s easy to start to believing you can walk on the ceiling.”

Tell that to San Diego Charger rookie quarterback Ryan Leaf.

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Changing times: James Lofton, an NCAA long jump champion before becoming an NFL receiver, is returning to track this week in the World Masters Games in Eugene, Ore. He will compete in the long jump and run the 400 meters.

“Back in my day, they called it the 400-meter run. Now it’s called the 400-meter dash. But for this event they might as well call it the 400-meter endurance run,” he said.

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Good thinking: When a few Chicago Cub fans made a feeble attempt at starting “The Wave” one night at Wrigley Field, it incensed Cub first baseman Mark Grace.

“That was weak, I never want to see it again,” Grace said. “They don’t do it here at Wrigley Field.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1919, Upset upset Man O’War in the Sanford Memorial Stakes at Saratoga. It was Big Red’s only defeat in 21 starts.

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The senior watch: The NCAA apparently didn’t go back far enough to record the greatest single-season turnaround by a coach in college football. As a recent Briefings noted, Dave Arnold of Montana State was said to hold the record after taking 1-10-1 team and turning it into 12-2 in 1984.

Alert readers have protested, pointing out that Clark Shaughnessy took a Stanford team that was 1-7-1 in 1939 and turned it into a 10-0-0 team in 1940, introducing the T-formation to the college game.

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For the record: Tim Duncan of the San Antonio Spurs is a native of St. Croix, one of the U.S. Virgin Islands. His nationality was listed incorrectly in Wednesday’s editions of The Times.

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Trivia answer: Tom Watson and Arnold Palmer.

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And finally: If Mark McGwire is the biggest drawing card in baseball, who do you think is second? Beanie Babies!

When teams have advertised a Beanie day, attendance has increased nearly 10,000 from the daily average.