They had already gotten 18 holes in that sunny Easter Sunday, hitting the first tee at Palm Beach Lakes Golf Course shortly after Mass, and after lingering over a light lunch they figured: Might as well play nine more.

They would rather have been working, all of them, but the day before, baseball's players had gone on strike, so Gil Hodges found himself without a team to manage, and his three closest friends — Joe Pignatano, Eddie Yost and Rube Walker, all coaches on his Mets' staff — had nothing but time on their hands.

In the afternoon sun, Hodges consistently out-drove his playing partners, though his short game was giving him trouble.

"Sometimes," Hodges said at one point, smiling, "I think I'm too strong for this game."