Golf Writer Can’t See Woods For the Tees

Joseph Mark Passov, in Links magazine’s U.S. Open preview, wasn’t that high on Tiger Woods’ chances at Congressional Country Club in June.

“Tiger Woods? Yes, he’s the longest hitter in the game by far, which will obviously serve him well at Congressional,” Passov wrote. “What he’s been struggling with lately, however, is his temperament. Sure, a balky putter and distance control with his irons have been problematic along with the usual trillion distractions, but he’s clearly not having as much fun as he was in late ’96 and early ‘97, and it’s showing in his reactions to even the simplest missed 10-footer.”

Think that might have been written before the Masters?

Add Woods: Passov isn’t Woods’ only critic. The Seattle Mariners’ Ken Griffey Jr. doesn’t think much of the golf phenom either . . . on the basketball court.

Griffey and Woods sneaked in a game of hoops in Florida, and Griffey, unable to resist a chance to tease Woods, told Live! magazine, “He’s got a nice little jumper, but he can’t go to his left--at all.”

Trivia time: Where did the nickname Bullets come from?

Not only the Dodgers left: Earlier this year, the NBA picked its 50 greatest players. Now a restaurant in Brooklyn has asked its customers to pick Brooklyn’s 50 greatest from the thousands who played their high school or college basketball in the New York borough.

The result: A starting five of Billy Cunningham, Lenny Wilkens, Connie Hawkins, Bernard King and Chris Mullin.

Reserves include former Lakers Jim McMillian, Rudy LaRusso and Leroy Ellis, former Laker coach Mike Dunleavy, and Doug Moe, Rolando Blackman, Stephon Marbury, John Salley, World B. Free, Vinnie Johnson, George Johnson and Albert King.

Trivia answer: A basketball team in the 1940s called itself the Baltimore Bullets, after the city’s wartime ammunition factory.

And finally: Those wondering how quarterback Jake Plummer will do in pro ball with the Arizona Cardinals, the team that selected him on the second round of last month’s draft, need not worry.

Plummer may have been known as “the Snake” for his zigzag moves at Arizona State, but he actually started working on those moves on “Monday Night Football.”

Sort of.

As a kid, Plummer remembers rushing into the kitchen to get some food while the Monday night game was on, then hurdling the sofa with the plate of food in his hand to get to his seat.

“I just wanted to get back to the game as fast as I could,” Plummer said.

Of course, hurdling Reggie White might prove to be a bit more difficult.