Golf Carts

A two-alarm fire destroyed 114 privately owned golf carts at the StoneRidge Country Club here Friday night, firefighters in the San Diego suburb reported. Cause of the fire was under investigation. Investigators estimated the loss in golf carts at $500,000. The fire swept through a shed housing carts owned by individuals, but another shed containing the club's 30 golf carts was not damaged, a club spokesman said.

Reporting from Tempe, Ariz.-- It seemed to defy logic and gravity -- and, perhaps, some rules of common sense -- but the Angels squeezed more than half a ton of players and $318 million in outstanding contracts on one electric golf cart Saturday morning. Veteran position players who work out on the lower fields of the Tempe Diablo Stadium complex usually catch rides back to the clubhouse, but there was only one cart available when Saturday's workout was complete. New slugger Albert Pujols, signed for 10 years and $240 million, and outfielder Vernon Wells, who has three years and $63 million left on his contract, grabbed spots on the rear-facing seat that is big enough to seat two comfortably.

When the doors of the Brooklawn Country Club swing open this July for the USGA Senior Open, Charlie Owens will be standing there with a 50-inch putter and a short fuse. The 57-year-old member of the Seniors Tour is determined to "get mean enough" to walk the 6,599-yard, par-71 course in Fairfield, Conn. Not that Owens has a choice: according to the rules of the U.S. Golf Assn., golf carts are about as welcome as noisy galleries. Owens isn't challenging the USGA's stance because he's lazy.

When they finally had overrun Moammar Kadafi's vast fortress and crushed the illusion that he still ruled them, euphoric rebels hunted down symbols of the power Libya's leader had held over nearly every aspect of their lives. They torched the Bedouin tent where Kadafi famously met with dignitaries and journalists. They drove around in one of the golf carts in which he navigated the compound. They mocked him by trying on a cheap plastic military hat that he might have worn in photos and on television.

The government is now targeting some senior citizens and their mode of transportation. New regulations being proposed by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involve golf carts. Those driving vehicles that can't go faster than 15 mph would be riding in "golf carts."' Faster models that can go between 15 and 25 mph would be considered "golf cars"--required to have headlights, turn signals, taillights, reflectors, mirrors, parking brakes, windshields, and seat belts.

The California Legislature, struggling to reform the insurance industry, solve a transportation crisis and decide the fate of semi-automatic "assault weapons," now is being asked to help resolve a neighborhood dispute over the use of golf carts on city streets. The issue landed in the lap of the state Assembly after the California Highway Patrol started cracking down on golfers cruising from their homes to the golf course at San Diego Country Estates in Ramona. Angry golfers there complained to the Highway Patrol, the county, and the state Department of Transportation, all to no avail.

I was all set to run out to Palm Desert to investigate a possible terrorist threat Tuesday when another one surfaced off the coast of Southern California near Santa Catalina Island. By midday, I was frozen in place, a victim of fear and loathing in the new world.

News item: City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky proposes a system of time clocks and cycle-riding marshals to keep play moving on the city's 13 public golf courses. I heard the siren during my backswing, and looked over my shoulder to see the motorcycle cop closing in on me, red lights flashing. He looked like a Highway Patrolman, except his helmet was white and dimpled, like a large golf ball, and his pants were a garish plaid.

A fire sparked by an electrical problem raced through a cavernous storage facility at the Yorba Linda Country Club Monday night, destroying the building and 56 golf carts before firefighters were able to put out the blaze. "It was one heck of a fire," Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young said of the two-alarm blaze. "It literally melted everything in its path." Young said that at 9:25 p.m.

Fire destroyed about 90 golf carts and a building at the Mountain View Country Club, a spokesman for the state Department of Forestry said Monday. Damage was estimated at about $315,000. The club is in Coronita, an unincorporated area west of Corona. "The cart shed was totaled," said George Lu of Fullerton, one of the club's owners. "It was burned completely down." Both the building and the carts are covered by insurance, Lu added.

As gas prices escalate toward $5 a gallon, one novel fuel saver is generally overlooked: the street-legal golf cart. These electric, low-speed vehicles, or LSVs, have been available since 1998 but have yet to catch on with urban commuters who may not be keen to avoid freeways and chug along at 25 mph. LSVs are essentially golf carts equipped with seatbelts, a safety-glass windshield and other street-legal features required by the National Highway...

Every time USC running back Dillon Baxter sees a would-be tackler out of the corner of his eye, instinct kicks in. "I want to cut back so bad," he said Saturday. The sophomore tailback, however, is attempting this spring to move straight ahead — on and off the field. Baxter's freshman season was, in his words, "a mess. " Quarterback Matt Barkley finding a comfort zone Part of the problem was a spectacular run he made last spring against a defense that would later prove to be subpar in tackling.

The NFL Players Assn. announced Friday that it had revoked the certification of agent Teague Egan, a USC student who gave tailback Dillon Baxter a golf cart ride on campus that led the freshman's temporary ineligibility. In a statement, the NFLPA said that Egan violated "numerous provisions of the NFLPA's Agent Regulations" by providing Baxter with the ride, which is regarded by the NCAA as a prohibited extra benefit. Baxter was suspended by USC for the Trojans' Nov. 20 game at Oregon State.

Meet Teague Egan , noted golf cart chauffeur, and the country's first certified NFL student agent, well meaning, he says, but with the potential to destroy USC's hopes of recovering from NCAA sanctions. A budding entrepreneur, Egan is probably known best in USC circles for not knowing the rules as a certified NFL agent, resulting in the one-game suspension of Dillon Baxter . His goal now is to represent four to six of his friends, who also happen to be USC football players, in the upcoming NFL draft ?

Pat Haden, from the day he was introduced as athletic director, has spoken passionately about creating a "culture of compliance" at USC. The school is on NCAA probation, and Haden has envisioned numerous problematic scenarios that might warrant attention. But a USC student who is also a certified sports agent was not one of them. "That was out of my wheelhouse," Haden said. It's now at the forefront ? for Haden, for USC's beefed-up compliance department, and at schools across the country.

The suspension of USC tailback Dillon Baxter , resulting from a golf cart ride the freshman accepted from a fellow student who is a registered agent, continued to reverberate Monday with the school responding to Internet reports that included photographs of Trojans players taken at parties sponsored by the student. Baxter was declared ineligible for last week's game at Oregon State because he accepted a ride on campus from other USC students, one of whom was Teague Egan , chairman of 1st Round Enterprises.

Two boys were arrested early Tuesday morning on suspicion of breaking into the Yorba Linda Country Club and stealing 31 cases of beer, which they then hauled away in several of the club's golf carts, authorities said. The suspects, ages 12 and 15, were arrested at a residence in Yorba Linda near the golf course, according to Lt. Bob Rivas, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Driving an electric golf cart, 81-year-old Ford S. Barton picked up his 83-year-old friend to go to a nearby supermarket in Laguna Hills. To get there, Barton used the same streets he had used for the past 4 years. But this time he never arrived. Barton's cart was rear-ended by a 1983 Buick Regal on Thursday. The cart flew into a center divider and hit an olive tree. The two men were thrown from the cart and suffered concussions and cuts.

Dave Roberts , USC's vice president for compliance, said Saturday that he expected suspended tailback Dillon Baxter to be reinstated after he repays the value of a golf cart ride on campus. Baxter did not make the trip to play against Oregon State after school officials discovered that he had accepted a ride from other USC students, one of whom Roberts said is a registered financial advisor with the NFL Players Assn. Roberts said a USC compliance director saw Baxter riding on a cart emblazoned with a logo for 1st Round Enterprises.