Fairways

Glenelg's Matt Greene first picked up a golf club when he was 10 years old, encouraged by his father, Brad. Now, seven years later, Matt has a 10 handicap and "almost a hole in one" to his credit, along with a lot of pleasant memories as he heads off to the University of Maryland, College Park in the fall. "Golf is challenging, it makes you think, and it's relaxing and competitive, all at the same time," says Matt, who graduated last month from River Hill High School. "And it gives me the opportunity to show off."

All right, we admit it. We're suckers for the big name, the glitzy rep, the veneer of instant respectability bestowed on a resort by a favorable review in a top-flight travel publication. So when the slick and tres influential magazine Conde Nast Traveler came out with its annual survey of the Top 50 golf resorts, our first thought was: How can we glom onto this idea and use it for our own purposes? We put our pointy heads together and came up with this: Five of those 50 resorts happen to be within a reasonable drive -- five hours is our idea of reasonable; please, let's not argue about this -- of Baltimore.

DURING LAST month's Ryder Cup golf competition in Brookline, Mass., more bad manners were on display than you'd find at an NHL game or at my dinner table.A yahoo factor previously absent from golf revealed itself during this esteemed tournament when members of the gallery taunted our European opponents with insults and deliberate attempts were made to break their concentration. The wife of the European captain was spat upon, if you can believe it.In addition, American players displayed inappropriate exuberance.

"THERE'S NO better use for land than a golf course," a friend used to say as we strolled the fairways (and more often, the woods and rough) of local golfing landscapes. He was devoted to the Scots game, ever reading and talking about it and watching others play in tournaments and exhibitions.And he played whenever he could, wherever he could. His enthusiasm for golf went far beyond that for a mere pastime.When he died, one eulogist suggested that his green pastures in heaven were pocked with golf cups -- and no one who knew the man considered that solemn thought trite or inappropriate.

The upscale golf boom is continuing, with The Links at Gettysburg (Pa.), Hampshire Greens in Ashton and P. B. Dye Golf Club near Frederick now open. Each of those is within easy driving distance of the Baltimore Beltway. Newcomers near the beach are the Bay Club East course in Berlin and Bear Trap Dunes near Bethany Beach, Del.The Links at GettysburgThis Scottish-influenced course is a mix of rolling hills and open valley holes, red rock cliffs, mature hardwoods and 10 man-made lakes that stand ready to drown errant shots.

His name is attached to one of the most famous shots ever struck in golf, as well as to one of its most glittering legacies.Gene Sarazen, called "The Squire" because of his jaunty personality and penchant for wearing plus-fours, died yesterday in a Florida hospital from complications of pneumonia. He was 97.Just last month, Sarazen made his annual appearance as a ceremonial starter at the Masters, a tournament he helped legitimize with his victory in 1935."I am very sorry to hear that Gene Sarazen passed away today," Masters chairman Hootie Johnson said yesterday in a statement.

IN THE APRIL 15, 1984, issue of the New York Times, a free-lance writer named Michael Dixon wrote an account of a painful experience he had as an African-American playing golf.The article ran under the headline "On Being Black and Loving Golf," and it describes a 1979 incident at Winged Foot Country Club in Mamaroneck, N.Y., which introduced Dixon to golf's racial animus. A few months before the incident, Dixon had played the course on the United States Golf Association's Media Day for the 1980 U.S. Senior Open, and he'd had an enjoyable time.

Timonium golfer Jenny Chuasiriporn made sports headlines with her own casual collegiate style. But should the amateur decide to trade up to glitzier golf attire, she'll have plenty to choose from.In recent years, designers and famous golfers alike have begun crafting clothes for the fairways, catering to the growing number of women taking up the game.Liz Claiborne's line includes sweater sets with racing stripes and capri pants. Ralph Lauren's Polo Golf collection features silk-blend cardigans and cotton tattersall shorts (shown here)

Three weeks ago, the AT&T Canadian Senior Open was played without its defending champion. Jack Kiefer was home in Florida after doctors discovered a cancerous growth on his spine. The former club pro is beginning to undergo treatment.Today, the Ford Senior Players Championship will begin without its defending champion. Larry Gilbert passed away in January, five months after an inoperable tumor was found in his lungs and seven months after he had won the biggest tournament of his career.If the atmosphere surrounding Senior Tour events doesn't seem as intense as on the PGA Tour, it's for a good reason.

HAVRE DE GRACE -- It's a morning right off a Department of Tourism brochure. Opening before us, under a dazzling blue sky, is a perfectly manicured fairway ringed by tall trees and ivory-colored bunkers and, somewhere off in the distance is a green so smooth and pure they say it was carved in golf heaven.This is the first tee at Bulle Rock, the new world-class 18-hole course designed by the legendary Pete Dye on 275 lush acres hard by the Chesapeake Bay, in the northeast corner of Maryland.