He paid to play for a change

Henrik Stenson is No. 16 in the World Golf Rankings, he won the Accenture Match Play Championship this year and finished in the top 20 at the Masters, but the Swede still paid greens fees to play at Torrey Pines this month.

Stenson swung by to get a peek at the 2008 U.S. Open venue on his way to the Target World Challenge at Sherwood Country Club.

He said it had been 10 years since he paid greens fees. He also paid for a bucket of balls at the driving range but was less than impressed by the range balls.

“The ball was going nowhere,” he told the Associated Press.

The highlight of the round, however, came when he discovered that one of his playing partners was Pamela Anderson, though not the former “Baywatch” actress.

“She told me, ‘The next time you’re south of L.A., give me a call,’ ” Stenson said. “And I told her, ‘Which Pamela Anderson am I going to look up?’ ”

Trivia time

Which former U.S. Open champion did Stenson defeat in the final of the Accenture Match Play Championship in February?

Win-fall

No matter who comes out victorious in the BCS title game Jan. 7 at New Orleans, Louisiana State Coach Les Miles and Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel are already big winners.

Miles has earned $400,000 in postseason bonuses for getting his team there, and Tressel has earned $200,000, according to Bloomberg News.

Winning wouldn’t hurt, though, as both have clauses that allow them to renegotiate their contracts if they win a national title. Miles would have to become one of the three highest-paid coaches in the nation.

Tressel, in his seventh season with the Buckeyes, will also earn a $425,000 longevity bonus for staying at the school through Jan. 31.

Colt won’t pony up

Count Indianapolis Colts Coach Tony Dungy among those thankful that the NFL will televise Saturday night’s game between the New England Patriots and New York Giants on CBS and NBC as well as the NFL Network.

“I don’t think I get NFL Network,” the Indianapolis Colts coach said.

Dungy, like other NFL coaches, cut an advertising spot that runs on the league’s channel, but is apparently one of those left in the dark because several major cable companies do not carry the network.

He said he had no plans of adding the channel at his home “unless they want to give it to me for free.”

The Greater One

Hockey may be the Canadian national pastime, but the Canadian Press had not selected a hockey player as its male national athlete of the year since Mario Lemieux in 1993.

That changed Wednesday, when Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby won the 2007 award.

In the 13 years in between, golfer Mike Weir, basketball player Steve Nash and race car driver Jacques Villeneuve won the award multiple times.

Even a baseball player -- Larry Walker -- won it.

But Crosby, 20, the reigning NHL MVP, could be in for a run rivaling Wayne Gretzky, who won the award six times from 1980 to ’89. “Crosby will be to kids today what Gretzky was to the children of the 1980s,” said Jim Swanson of the Prince George Citizen.

League under the sea

Need to get your fantasy fix during the dead time between football and baseball seasons?

Try fantasy fishing.

FLW Outdoors is planning a fantasy league to run with its fishing tour, which begins Jan. 15. Participants will form teams of 10 anglers from the FLW Tour and will earn the same points as the anglers do in each tournament.

And in case anyone thought this was a joke, organizers made it clear they are serious by offering a $1-million first prize.

“We’ve been testing the fantasy fishing for several years,” said Dave Washburn, a FLW spokesman. “But right now there’s nothing available on the scale of what we’re doing, especially in prize money; and not just in fishing but in any fantasy sport.”

Trivia answer

Geoff Ogilvy, the 2006 U.S. Open champion.

And finally

New York Islanders right wing Miroslav Satan scored a goal Saturday, giving him career point No. 666.

peter.yoon@latimes.com