Scottish stars come out to back Murray

Moments after U.S. Open champion Andy Murray became the first British man in 76 years to win a Grand Slam tennis title, Scottish knight Sir Sean Connery wanted to make one thing clear.

"Stop saying he's British: He's Scottish," the 82-year-old actor said. "I've been fighting that for 40-odd years."

Connery, the original James Bond, and Sir Alex Ferguson, the legendary Manchester United soccer coach, were two of Murray's most enthusiastic supporters at the U.S. Open.

With Murray's mother, Judy, in tow, Connery and Ferguson crashed Murray's news conference after his semifinal win over Tomas Berdych.

"Excuse me for interrupting," said Connery, who might have had a few martinis - shaken, not stirred, of course.

"You smell like wine," Murray said.

"He made me have wine," Judy Murray said of Ferguson. "He has just been telling me that Scotland invented the world."

Shouted Connery: "Today they conquered the world."

Before Murray's epic five-set marathon victory over Novak Djokovic in the final, we only can imagine Connery gave him a rousing pep talk straight from his "That's how you get Capone" scene in "The Untouchables":

"You wanna know how to get a Grand Slam? They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Scottish way! And that's how you get a Grand Slam!"

■ SHOTGUN START - After an errant golf ball broke a window in his home on Reno's LakeRidge Golf Course, Jeff Fleming, 53, responded in the same reasonable manner most people who reside on a golf course would: He grabbed his shotgun, confronted the golfers and shot one of them.

The unidentified 33-year-old victim was treated at a local hospital and released as a shotgun pellet only grazed him in the arm.

Per course rules, Fleming wasn't given a mulligan and fled the scene - rumor has it in a golf cart with an overhead gun rack. Police apprehended him a short time later, charging him with two felonies.

No word if the victim is Carl Spackler, the former Bushwood Country Club assistant greenskeeper who finally might have cashed in on the promise made to him by the Dalai Lama himself.

"So we finish the 18th, and he's gonna stiff me," Spackler said in "Caddyshack." "And I say, 'Hey, Lama, how about a little something, you know, for the effort.' And he says, 'Oh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.' So I got that goin' for me, which is nice."

■ HEAD OVER HEELS - Getting hit in the head by a line drive and undergoing surgery has emboldened Oakland Athletics pitcher Brandon McCarthy.

Shortly after he was released from the hospital, McCarthy tweeted, "WELL IF BEING DISCHARGED FROM THE HOSPITAL ISNT THE BEST TIME TO ASK ABOUT A THREESOME THEN IM FRESH OUT OF IDEAS."

McCarthy's wife wasted little time posting her reply: "I WILL strike someone with a brain injury."

COMPILED BY TODD DEWEY
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL