He Doesn’t Understand Their Surprise

The odds on making a hole in one are 12,999 to 1 for the average golfer. But David Warren, a plumber in Matthews, N.C., does not pay them much heed.

Since taking up the game again last September after a 10-year hiatus, Warren has hit five aces.

“Right before the third one, I told these guys I was playing with that I hadn’t had a hole in one in three weeks,” he said. “They looked at me like I was crazy. Then I knocked it up there and it went in the hole.”

Since the first one, playing partners and friends have told Warren, 45, how lucky he is and how most people play a lifetime without making a hole in one.

“To me, it’s like fishing,” he said. “If you fish, you’ll catch the fish. If you play golf, you’ll get holes in one. It seems easy. That’s my attitude.”

Trivia time: Which non-rookie NFL coach has never lost in August?

An early call: Lennox Lewis failed to show for a recent news conference in London to promote his Oct. 1 heavyweight title fight against Frank Bruno.

Promoters quickly hooked up a telephone line to Los Angeles, where Lewis was detained while working on a boxing video game in his name. The call came at 4 a.m., PDT, and the champion was barely awake or audible.

“Go back to sleep,” Bruno said. “And get used to sleeping.”

No second chances: The New England Patriots are quickly learning that life with Coach Bill Parcells is completely different than it was the past few years. The new coach released veteran lineman Reggie Redding when he failed to complete a series of running drills on the first day of training camp.

When wide receiver Hart Lee Dykes, out because of a knee injury, insisted on doing his rehabilitation at home in Texas, Parcells gave him this ultimatum: “Before you go, make sure you stop by and clean out your locker. You go home, you’re not on this team anymore.”

Dykes decided to stay.

Deep in the heart: Troy, Tex., a town of 1,394 residents between Waco and Austin, showed its love for the Dallas Cowboys this week. The city council voted to rename the town Troy Aikman during the football season, in honor of the Cowboys’ starting quarterback.

Mayor Tom Vanderveer hopes the new name will help put the place on the map. Aikman said he is honored and might stop by.

Leaning to the right: Nolan Ryan voted for Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election. After that, he switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican. “Everybody’s entitled to make a mistake,” he said.

Ryan’s favorite presidents, in order: George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and John Kennedy.

Picking a winner: Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle believes Reggie Jackson should have been wearing an Oakland Athletic uniform instead of New York Yankee garb on his Hall of Fame bronze plaque dedicated last Sunday.

“Why honor one team over the other?” Ostler wrote. “When Catfish (Hunter) first learned he was elected to the Hall, he was photographed with an A’s cap and a Yankee cap. When Rickey Henderson is inducted, he’ll probably be diplomatic and be enshrined with a dollar sign on his cap.”

Trivia answer: Dennis Green of the Minnesota Vikings, who is 5-0 in August exhibitions.

Quotebook: John Kruk of the Philadelphia Phillies, on his feelings for baseball: “I don’t live and die for this. It’s not like if I never get a hit again I’ll kill myself. It’s like anything else, you do something for seven months and it gets old.”