Mac the Knife

Through the miracle of modern technology I googled for info on the ambidextrous former pro golfer Mac O'Grady, now pushing 60, an eccentric who read Shakespeare and Emerson while living in a cardboard box back in the early '80s. Turns out he's doing well and heads a successful golf instruction school.

Came across this quaint reminder about what you could get in trouble for back in the mid-'80s:

The latest violation cited a quote attributed to O'Grady in The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel last Sunday: ''Deane doesn't like guys challenging his authority. It's part of his Russian ideology. Maybe I should change my name to Mac Sakharov.'' O'Grady, who had no comment on the move by Beman, may appeal the charges within 30 days of notification.

Actual violation: "failure to string together banal sports cliches in the presence of a reporter."

(Speaking of violations, Mark McGwire had his long-delayed come-to-Jesus moment when he admitted the pluperfectly obvious. They say the wife is always the last to know, but it's really the husband. It's ourselves.)

It's both surprising & not that Mac O'Grady became an excellent golf instructor. He reminds me of former Dodger hurler Mike Marshall in how both were mad scientists in the sporting realm and how both became coaches/instructors. "The truth shall make you odd," is the tagline of Sancta Sanctis, and both O'Grady & Marshall discovered truths outside the conventional wisdom of their respective sports and both were seen as odd. But oddly effective.