Golf

The 78 players who will tee off today in the Constellation Energy Senior Players Championship at Baltimore Country Club in Timonium are going to be facing one of the most challenging tests on the Champions Tour, on one of the more historic venues in the country while playing for the tour's biggest overall purse. But what exactly are they going after in the golf season's final major championship? Is it the satisfaction that comes from conquering the 7,003-yard course, the longest on the Champions Tour?

Albert Lord doesn't like to wait - not in business or on the golf course. The colorful chairman of student loan behemoth Sallie Mae, who's embroiled in a nasty fight over the failed sale of the company, has spent 40 years in the accounting and banking industries. He said that experience should have instilled in him a measure of patience, but it hasn't. Whether in traffic, at the office or on the links, Lord said, he just doesn't like to wait. He can't do much about the first two, but he's got a sure-fire solution for the last one: He's building his own, an 18-hole golf course on land he's acquired amid shuttered tobacco farms and grazing horses in southern Anne Arundel County.

Monica Evans smiled as she practiced her favorite part of golf, the full swing, on the driving range at Timbers at Troy Golf Course in Elkridge. A few feet away, Jim Bradley worked on his form as he whacked balls on a hot summer evening. Evans, 19, who has Down syndrome, and Bradley, 65, were taking part in a program that encourages people with and without disabilities to interact while they learn the game. The golf course in Howard County is one of two locations in the nation offering Project GAIN -- which stands for Golf: Accessible and Inclusive Networks.

Developers for the Two Rivers community hope to break ground this summer on an 18-hole golf course, the first piece of an age-restricted project of 2,000 homes south of Odenton, after recently gaining preliminary planning approval from Anne Arundel County. John C. Stamato, president of Annapolis-based Ribera Development, said yesterday the next step is to submit to the county final engineering plans for the gated community on 1,471 acres between the Patuxent and Little Patuxent rivers.

Dr. James Brady Smith, a retired physician who enjoyed sailing and golfing, died of heart failure Sunday at his Severna Park home. He was 91. Known as Brady, Dr. Smith was born in Baltimore, the son of a physician. He was raised in an apartment over his father's Light Street office and at the family's summer home in Riviera Beach. He was a great-nephew of Emerson C. Harrington, who served as Maryland governor from 1916 to 1920. He was a 1932 graduate of City College, and earned his undergraduate degree four years later from the University of Maryland, where he played football and competed in wrestling.

Hayley Milbourn, Roland Park -- Milbourn led the Reds to a 9-0 season and their second Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland championship in three years. The senior has played in the No. 1 spot the past three years (golf became a league sport in 2005) and has an individual career match record of 23-0 after a 9-0 finish this season. She has won 100 of 144 career holes, lost only 12 and tied 32. Her hole record this season was 40-3-9. Hayley was the individual champion in 2005 and 2006 and would have been again this year, as she finished nine strokes ahead of her closest competitor.

They are both former college All-Americans. Gayle Wallace achieved that status in two sports, softball and basketball, for three years at Worcester State in Massachusetts. Kim Turner was chosen four times in field hockey at the University of Maryland, and scored on a crucial penalty stroke to help the Terrapins win the 1987 national championship.Wallace and Turner share more than a similar past.They also share an uncertain future as professional golfers.When the SBC Futures Tour visits The Links at Erie Village in York, Pa., for this week's YWCA Briarwood Futures Open, Wallace and Turner plan to be there.

AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Brandel Chamblee's take on the 69 he shot in the first round of the Masters yesterday?"Best round I ever shot here," he said.Very funny.It's the only round he's ever shot at Augusta National.Chamblee, 36, is a PGA Tour veteran playing in his first Masters. That he broke 70 in the first round is borderline heresy.Jack Nicklaus couldn't do it. Nor could Arnold Palmer. Both shot 76 in their first rounds at Augusta National four decades ago.Tiger Woods? He shot 72 as an amateur in 1995.

COLLEGE PARK -- When Tom Hanna was a freshman at the University of Maryland, he lived with some of his golf teammates in rooms above the pro shop. One was a fifth-year senior who had helped the Terrapins in 1964 win what remains their only Atlantic Coast Conference championship.His name was Pedro Rivera."Pete kind of took me under his wing," recalled Hanna last week.More than three decades later, Hanna is the Terrapins' coach and an athlete named Rivera once again figures in the improved performance of the golf program.

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.

Pete Caringi, Calvert Hall, soccer The senior forward scored the decisive goals last week in two victories that moved the No. 9 Cardinals into second place in the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference after they missed the six-team playoff field a year ago. Caringi, who has 10 goals and four assists this season, scored in the 1-0 win over then-No. 1 McDonogh and added a goal and an assist in a 3-1 victory over No. 14 Gilman. A club player with the Casa Mia Bays and the son of former Calvert Hall All-American Pete Caringi, the younger Caringi is considering UMBC, where his dad is head coach, Providence, North Carolina State and other colleges.

Tom Watson and Lonnie Nielsen have, at first glance, very little in common. One is a five-time British Open winner coming off a magical summer where he nearly won a sixth Claret Jug at age 59. He is, without argument, one of the greatest the sport has seen. The other is a former Buffalo, N.Y., club pro who never won a tournament on the PGA Tour and has just two career victories on the Champions Tour. But part of what makes golf such an unpredictable sport is that, whatever his accomplishments, every player gets a little nervous.

Pro football Marks will be reporter for Versus on UFL games The United Football League announced Tuesday that local broadcaster Anita Marks will be part of a four-person team covering the new league on Versus. Marks will serve as a reporter along with play-by-play announcer Dave Sims, analyst Doug Flutie and reporter Kordell Stewart, a former Ravens quarterback. Marks, who co-hosts an afternoon talk show on 105.7 and hosts Ravens pre- and post-game shows, was a quarterback for the Miami Fury, a women's professional football team, for four years and the Florida Stingrays for one year.

Next time you face a challenge in life, think about a young man named Vince Biser. Biser, 21, just won the North American One-Armed Golfer Association championship at the tough PGA National course in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. Oh, Biser has two arms. But he was born with cerebral palsy and has limited vision and virtually no use of the right side of his upper body. Which means he swings a golf club with only one arm - his left. I watched him hit balls the other day on the practice range at the Country Club of Maryland, where he's a member.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Sharpie 500 practice SPEED Noon Sprint Cup Sharpie 500 final practice SPEED 2 Nationwide Food City 250 qualifying SPEED 4 Sprint Cup Sharpie 500 qualifying ESPN2 5:30 Nationwide Food City 250 ESPN2 8 Baseball Orioles@Tampa Bay (T) MASN 8 a.m. Milwaukee@Washington MASN2 7 Orioles@White Sox MASN 8 Milwaukee@Washington (T) MASN Midnight Ripken WS International Championship MLB Noon U.S. Championship MLB 3 Ltt. Lg. WS Mercer Isl. (Wash.) vs. Stat. Isl. (N.Y.

'Stay & Play' golf at Wintergreen Resort What's the deal?: Stay two nights at Wintergreen Resort, located near Charlottesville, Va., and get a night free. In addition, the "Stay & Play" package includes 18 holes of golf daily, early start times, unlimited use of practice facilities, club storage and locker room service. The offer also includes one round of golf at Devils Knob Golf Club, a course known for its mountaintop layout - at 3,850 feet, it is the highest golf course in Virginia.

CHASKA, Minn. - - Hazeltine National will play so long for the PGA Championship, even Corey Pavin likes his chances. Huh? Pavin is the wimpiest hitter on the PGA Tour. His average drive peters out at 259.4 yards, an entire first down shorter than those of Brian Gay, who ranks 200th among the tour's 201 measured players. And yet, Pavin loves the fact that Hazeltine National could play to a major championship-record 7,674 yards, depending on the setup. Why? Because three of the four par-5s are all but unreachable, meaning that players will approach the greens with wedges or 9-irons.

BETHESDA - When the first ball flies through the air at 7:10 this morning, officially opening the AT&T National and the latest iteration of professional golf in Washington, a transition begins. The conclusion of play Sunday at Congressional Country Club, closing Tiger Woods' tournament, will mark the interruption of a three-decade run for the PGA Tour in the nation's capital. Thus, almost immediately, begins the preamble to what could be the area's most visible golf event ever, the 2011 U.S. Open.

Women's lacrosse U.S. routs England to advance to championship vs. Australia The United States defeated England, 20-3, in the semifinals of the Federation of International Lacrosse World Cup on Thursday in Prague and will advance to the gold-medal game Saturday at 9 a.m. against defending champion Australia, which won the 2005 event by beating the Americans in the final in Annapolis. Katie Rowan led all scorers Thursday with three goals and five assists. Starting U.S. goalie Devon Wills had three saves in the first half, and Megan Huether (Maryvale Prep)

I went to see Michelle Wie play at Bulle Rock on Thursday because I'm a sucker for drama queens, and there's enough drama in this young woman's life for any reality series you come up with. Just shy of 20 years old, she remains endlessly fascinating to golf fans. She's the child prodigy who has so far failed to deliver on her enormous potential, the sweet-swinging long-hitter - averaging 272 yards on her drives, sixth on the LPGA Tour - who can sometimes seem lost and clueless at this game.