It’s not like us to be holier-than-thou, but when the once-augustNew York Timestees it up like this, well, we can’t resist cracking one down the fairway.

To wit: The tiny ad in Monday’s paper for The Links at Shirley Golf Course in Shirley (Long Island, NY) says: "Come Sink Your Putts in Shirley."

The way I heard the joke (about 15 years ago) was: "Golf is a lot like marriage. You have to play by the rules. You have to be considerate of your partner. And you have to sink a lot of putts."

Get it! It was mildly funny then. Adding the play on "Shirley" brings it to a truly sophomoric, two-by-four-over-the-cranium level of wit. And this atThe Times, which had employed, at one point, an editor in charge of standards and still has an ombudsman (whom I haven’t read since they got rid of that guy who loved the Red Sox).

Anyway, times being what they are — and by this I mean Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. just sold his new building, threatened to shut downThe Boston Globein order to break a few unions, and borrowed money from a Mexicansugar daddymedia baron to make ends meet – I guess revenue is revenue!

I’m told by a friend in Florida that the ad made the editions that are circulated there. It’s on the same page, D7, in the suburban New York/New Jersey editions as Bill Pennington’s golf column and the jump of Larry Dorman’s account of Henrik Stenson’s victory Sunday at The PLAYERS championship. So, give credit to the Links at Shirley for (GROANER ALERT!) being able todrive the greenandput its putts in the hole!Of course, this oversight and/or indiscretion was likely made by someone in ad sales so I fully expect that Dorman and Pennington won’t be quoting Richard Hertz or Heywood Jablome anytime soon. — Robert Lohrer