Odd golf hazard in California has teeth

Greg Norman's long monopoly on shark tales on a golf course has come to an inglorious end.

As golfers gazed to the heavens and prayed for birdies and eagles last week at San Juan Hills Golf Club in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., a 2-foot-long shark fell out of the sky and thrashed around on the 12th tee.

Bleeding from two puncture wounds, the 2-pound leopard shark apparently was plucked from the nearby ocean by a predatory bird and then dropped on the course - where a shark hadn't struggled that much since Norman blew a six-stroke lead in the final round of the 1996 Masters.

"It was just wriggling around. He needed to get to the ocean right away," said Melissa McCormack, the club's director of operations.

A group of golfers had just left the tee box when the shark landed. We're sure they would have let it play through, but a course marshal put the shark in his golf cart and drove it to the clubhouse, where it was placed in a bucket of "homemade sea water" and returned to the ocean by employee Bryan Stizer.

"When Bryan put it in the water, it didn't move," McCormack said. "But then it flipped and took off."

Nearby, the predatory bird chirped to his friends about his round, which included two holes-in-one.

■ LAP DANCE LAWSUIT - Baltimore Ravens offensive tackle Bryant McKinnie was sued Monday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, according to NBC Miami, for $375,000 in unpaid bills he piled up at several South Florida strip clubs.

At $20 a pop, that equates to 18,750 lap dances. Then again, at 6 feet 8 and 360 pounds, McKinnie has a large lap.

The lawsuit was filed by Charles "Pop" Young, father of rapper Trick Daddy, who alleges McKinnie borrowed the money from him when he was general manager of the King of Diamonds club and has yet to repay any of it.

McKinnie, whose wages are being garnished this season due to a settlement of a separate lawsuit for a $4.5 million loan he took out during the NFL lockout - you know, just to get by - told The Baltimore Sun the new lawsuit is "bogus."

"He was working at those places, and he's tried to borrow money from me. People can put anything out there," he said. "What strip club gives you a $375,000 tab?

"You could never run up a tab like that."

Maybe not, but it might be fun to try.

■ PAUL BLART, HOSPITAL COP - Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Braylon Edwards showed up at a hospital Monday to get an MRI examination on his swollen knee, only to be chastised by a hospital security guard for screwing up his fantasy football team for not playing in Sunday's game against the Detroit Lions.

"Fantasy football turns some people into jerks lol," Edwards tweeted. "Complete lack of interest in the fact that I was at a hospital."

Edwards should be flattered. He might have met the only fantasy football owner in the country who still has him on his team.

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL