So Let’s Get Started at the 19th Hole

Is it possible for a golfer to play his first round of the year 2000--and then play his last round in 1999?

Yes, according to Golf Digest.

At dawn on Jan. 1, you play at Manamo’ui golf course in Ha’ateiho in Tonga. After holing out on No. 18, you fly 600 miles northeast to Samoa. When you cross the international date line, you’re back on New Year’s Eve and there is plenty of light left to play Royal Samoa Country Club in Apia, the world’s westernmost golf course.

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Trivia time: Eighteen of the 21 players who have hit 450 home runs are in baseball’s Hall of Fame. Who are the three not in?

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Ironic? After Latrell Sprewell scored 29 points last Wednesday night to lead the Knicks and embattled Coach Jeff Van Gundy past the Pacers to take a 3-2 Eastern Conference finals lead, the San Francisco Chronicle quoted humorous Argus Hamilton as saying, “Wouldn’t it be funny if Sprewell saved his coach’s neck?”

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Sounds simple: Author Dan Jenkins says the best one-sentence golf lesson he ever heard came from Jack Nicklaus, who said, “I’ve never missed a putt in my mind.”

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Second year: The sophomore jinx apparently has struck again in baseball.

Kerry Wood, the Chicago Cubs’ rookie sensation, has undergone surgery on his arm and may not pitch in the majors before mid-2000.

Ben Grieve, last year’s American League rookie of the year, is batting .210 with three homers and 20 RBIs.

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Looking back: On this day in 1930, Max Schmeling beat Jack Sharkey on a fourth-round foul in New York for the world heavyweight title left vacant by the retired Gene Tunney.

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Remembering Ben: The British Open will be played next month at Carnoustie, Scotland. Ben Hogan won there in the only British Open he played, and British writer Pat Ward Thomas penned this about the man the Scots called the “Wee Ice Mon”:

“Imagine him as he scrutinizes a long, difficult stroke, with arms quietly folded, an inscrutable quarter-smile on his lips, for all the world like a gambler watching the wheel spin. And then the cigarette is tossed away, the club taken with abrupt decision, the glorious swing flashes and a long iron pierces the wind like an arrow. That was Hogan. We shall never see his like again.”

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Personal reasons: Todd Harvey, the New York Ranger center, thinks it’s a good idea for the NHL to send players to the Olympics again in 2002. Why?

“Then I can have a two-week break.”

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Trivia answer: Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield and Mark McGwire, none of whom is yet eligible.

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And finally: Eddie Stanky, who died last week at 83, was legendary as a no-nonsense guy. When then-vice president Hubert Humphrey wanted to visit the Chicago White Sox dressing room during the 1967 pennant race, Stanky refused.

“What do I need Humphrey for?” he said. “He can’t hit.”