TONGUE-IN-CHEEK GOLF A HOLE IN ONE.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH Media

Maybe you missed it in all the other controversial medal-grubbing hubbub, but CBS had exclusive coverage of the Caddy Olympics late Thursday night from Riviera Country Club. Without incident, incidentally.

(This is the point when you're supposed to say aloud, ``What in the name of Gary McCord and David Feherty are you talking about?'')

Precisely.

Another ``Late Night'' goofy golf show disguised as highlights from the first round of the Nissan Open. Another chance for CBS' resident bunkerboys to waste network time and money spoofing the game they claim to love.

(That, by the way, also was a joke).

``I think the show's motto is `It's so bad, it's good,' '' Feherty said.

McCord admitted: ``I've already lost my dignity. We ran out of good ideas long ago. This is minutia now.''

(Hmmm. Maybe it wasn't such a joke after all).

Before CBS seriously covers the final two rounds of the Tiger-less Nissan Open, the ``Late Night'' highlight package winds up its fourth season of 15 minutes of Gary-and-David-foolery tonight at 12:50 a.m., right after Letterman ends.

It's long after real golfers have retired for the night, so who's watching? Enough, apparently, to keep pushing back Kilborn's monologue for a few weeks a year.

``I'm sure no one really knows how much production goes into these, really with no budget, and God knows if anyone even sees it,'' said Chris Svendsen, who, with Jim Rikhoff, directs and produces the sideshows in the three days leading up to the first round.

Wednesday morning, Svendsen and Rikhoff were buzzing around the Riviera cart paths with a couple of cameramen and sound guys to fish up some final video clips for the Caddy Olympics, which really were just a bunch of sight gags that involved club carriers doing things such as dodging balls on the driving range, jumping over the gallery ropes, washing balls, plus the 2-man and 4-man golag relays.

All this while the Nissan Pro-Am was trying to go on. So while there was plenty of real errant golf-shot dodging for the self-dubbed ``rat pack'' production crew, they also were providing comic relief for pros such as Fred Couples, who stopped playing on the ninth fairway to laugh at McCord in a blue stocking cap for part of the Caddy skit.

The ``Late Night'' actually has been something many pros, including Tiger Woods, enjoy doing because it helps uncover their personality. Last week at Torrey Pines, Woods agreed to play a round with Feherty for the show, while McCord caddied for comic relief.

``Obviously, the goal isn't just another highlight show, but to have fun and do things we can't do on the weekend,'' said Svendsen, who acts as associate director on the weekend telecast. ``When the season ends in November, we're thinking all winter about what we can do to make McCord and Feherty look like dopes next year.''

Mission accomplished. Without much effort. And McCord can do even more of that on his own the next seven weeks in a row - he'll be on the PGA Senior Tour.

--Where from here? For as long as CBS golf producer Lance Barrow can recall - going back to when he was a spotter for Pat Summerall and Vin Scully in the '70s - the network always has been the one covering the PGA Tour stop in Los Angeles. That ends, at least for the next four years, with this weekend's coverage.

As part of the PGA's $850 million TV-rights deal for 2003-06 that was signed last July, ABC has carjacked the Nissan from CBS. But there's no imminent road rage from CBS' road crew, which will get an extra week to prepare for March Madness and the Masters.

``Our relationships with everyone here go way back, so it's always sad to lose that,'' Barrow said. ``Coming here and setting up, plugging everything in was always so easy. I'll miss this course and its great tradition. But life goes on and you got to move forward.''

Will viewers notice much of a change from CBS to ABC?

Put it this way: CBS' coverage was voted the fans' favorite in the March issue of Golf Digest's TV poll. Jim Nantz was voted best host, and of all the analysts in the survey, Feherty and McCord were in the top three with NBC's Johnny Miller.

After CBS (20 percent), the Golf Channel (17 percent) was the second network choice of viewers over ESPN, ABC and NBC (12 percent each).

SOUND BYTES

WHAT SMOKES

--NBC says during its first chance to cover the Daytona 500 on Sunday morning it finally will allow Dale Earnhardt to rest in peace. We all know what happened a year ago at the Daytona International Speedway. ``We've all moved forward,'' pit reporter Bill Weber said. ``I think that's the feeling you'll get from our salute to him on Sunday.''

--A day after he is scheduled to make his return to the broadcast booth, Chick Hearn will be honored by The City of Hope Cancer Center at their ninth annual sports roast March 2 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. The Lakers broadcaster is recovering from heart surgery. Information: [phone], ext. 26507.

--ABC has dispatched Ann Meyers to do the USC men's basketball game against Arizona on Saturday at 3 p.m., working with play-by-play man Mark Jones.

--Must read: The current Sports Illustrated story called ``Reversal of Fortune'' on Missouri guard Kareem Rush in relation to his older brother JaRon, the former UCLA standout who left school after his sophomore year in 2000 and hardly has been heard from on the hardcourt since. In fact, JaRon was released by the ABA's Kansas City Knights on Thursday.

WHAT CHOKES

--In his best imitation of Fred Willard, Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show TV host Joe Garagiola blurted out after some curly haired critter named Surrey Spice Girl won the ``Best in Show'' award to beat out more than 2,500 mutt freaks that included a favored Kerry blue terrier: ``And so the upsets continue - Diamondbacks, New England Patriots and miniature poodles!'' One small thing Joe left out among that list of upsets - he continues to be paid to use a microphone for the purpose of transmitting his voice over public airwaves.

--HBO's ``Dennis Miller Live'' plans to tackle sports-obsessed parents on tonight's episode (11:30 p.m.). The special guest is Martin Short, who might have a short temper but doesn't seem to have any expertise as a potential irate soccer dad. Someone should pry John McEnroe from the chair for this one.

--Deion Sanders, currently on CBS' ``NFL Today'' as a studio distraction, has been drafted to host the Miss USA 2002 (not to be confused with Miss America, Miss Universe or anything Mike Tyson has been accused of disrupting) on March 1 for the network. Yes, the event is scheduled for prime time.

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SOUND BYTES (see text)