Maybe all bets are off now

It won't rank up there with Charles Barkley having to kiss a donkey on national TV, but Australian golfer Karrie Webb made a wager she probably would like to forget.

After Sweden's Annika Sorenstam won eight LPGA Tour events in 2001, Webb said she would eat her hat if Sorenstam could repeat that feat this year.

Would you believe ... 11 tour victories by Annika this year?

"Gulp. What best complements a cotton chapeau, red or white wine?" wrote Steve Elling in the Orlando Sentinel. "Care for an order of Vegemite with that, miss? Perhaps it'll go down easier as a sandwich."

Responded Webb: "I might have to add some salt and tomato sauce to it."

Webb can afford a sense of humor, since crow undoubtedly tastes more like chicken than donkey.

The book on James

All but two of the nation's top-50 senior basketball players have signed college letters of intent, The Plain Dealer reported, but Ohio forward phenom LeBron James is one of those holdouts.

That doesn't shock Michael Ventre of MSNBC.com, who reasons: "I can see where a young high-school kid like LeBron James is torn between making himself eligible for the NBA, or going for the big money by playing at Michigan."

Quote busters

• Tony Amonte of the Phoenix Coyotes, telling Fox's "Best Damn Sports Show Period" about his training regimen: "You have to keep a little bit extra fat on the body. The strength and conditioning guy is always all over me about it, but it seems to make guys bounce off me better."

• Terry Bradshaw, as quoted by the Saskatoon StarPhoenix's Cam Hutchinson, on not being chosen for People magazine's list of sexiest men: "If I am not the sexiest man alive, explain why so many women married me?"

• Volleyball icon and budding golfer Gabrielle Reece, telling the Denver Post why the prospect of becoming Augusta National's first female member wouldn't excite her: "Why would I want to hang around with a bunch of middle-age white guys smoking cigars?"

• Scott Ostler of the San Francisco Chronicle, saying the NFL is correct in differentiating between ephedra and marijuana in its substance-abuse policy: "(Ephedra) could give an unfair chemical advantage over an opponent. If I'm playing football and my opponent wants to smoke pot before the game, I'll bring him matches."

Swifter, higher, richer

The next Olympics are nearly two years away, so in the meantime the U.S. Olympic Committee is going for the gold on eBay.

Noted Peter Yoon of the Los Angeles Times: "Auctions are under way for two days of training with the Olympic luge team, batting practice with the softball team, diving instruction from gold medalist Laura Wilkinson and curling instruction from a member of the curling team.

"What, no ski jumping?"