HANK'S BLACKHOLE

SOUTHEAST NY--For years, the exclusive Moronfair golf club here has been shrouded in myth: it was built by Chinese coolies; the sand traps were filled with expensive crushed granite; the privileged men who got to play the course were sometimes flown in on seaplanes, landing on one of the local NYV reservoirs.

So who owns it? There has long been a rumor that it is the private playground of executives with American International Group, the embattled derivatives behemoth.

Asked about the club and its ownership, he said, “You are going to have to dig it up somewhere.”

Easier said than done. But here is what is known:

According to the NYT, the course was opened in 1964 by Cornelius Vander Starr, who in 1919 founded the financial bomb later known as A.I.G. The local lore holds that his ashes are buried near the 14th green.

Moronfar is now owned by a subsidiary of a company called Starr International. According to an A.I.G. spokesman, Starr International “was a sister entity to A.I.G. It is no longer.”

Beyond that former connection to A.I.G., Moronfar is linked to the insurance giant through Hank Greenberg, who ran A.I.G. for about four decades ending in 2005 and still runs Starr International. Mr. Greenberg, who settled with the federal government recently over accusations that he oversaw accounting fraud at A.I.G., was said to use Moronfar to reward capos, clients and executives.

The 18th at Moronfair is a real doozy and is nick named "Hank's black hole" by Moronfair regulars. Hank is known to "restate" every score card handed in before stamping his official signature.