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'I'll play occassionally' Palmer hints at cutback of competitive career
Updated: Friday July 27, 2001 4:45 PM
NEWCASTLE, Northern Ireland (AP) -- Arnold Palmer, embarrassed by a round in the 80s, is close to giving up competitive golf and intends to reduce an already shortened schedule. "I'm going to cut it back," he said Friday. "I hate shooting a round like yesterday." As John Bland of South Africa took the lead midway through the Senior British Open, the 71-year-old Palmer shot a 2-under 34 on the back nine for a 75 -- a nine-stroke improvement on the previous day's 84, which tied for the worst round. Bland shot a 69 for a 5-under 137 total to lead by one stroke over American David Oakley, who had a 3-under 68, and former champion Bob Charles of New Zealand, who had his second 69. Bland and Oakley both bogeyed the par-5 18th, while Charles birdied. Jack Nicklaus began with two birdies but managed only a 72 in a round he described as "a bit sloppy." At 142, he was five shots off the lead. Gary Player was at 145 following a 73. Palmer returned to a limited tournament schedule after battling prostate cancer in 1998 and twice this year shot his age in a tournament round. He was visibly upset by his round Thursday and only slightly less so after his play Friday. "Give it up? I'm getting close," he said. "I'll play occasionally. I'll always play the Masters." He will not take his social golf lightly.
"If I don't work hard at that, I'll go broke," he said. "The social players want my money." Palmer, who missed the cut, blamed himself for his poor performance this week. "I made a major tactical error just coming on Wednesday and trying to practice and then play the tournament," he said. "I should have been here no later than early Tuesday to play a practice round and Monday would have been ever better. "I had no chance. My game is not in very good condition to start with and then playing this golf course with no knowledge of it was a disaster. I just didn't calculate the situation correctly." He conceded that he was in a classic golfing dilemma of not playing enough to be competitive and not having time to play enough to be competitive. "I'll be 72 shortly," he said. "I said when I was 65 I would start curtailing my play and I have been doing that. I will continue to curtail it and play less and less." Nicklaus said he felt he had played a few too many bad shots. "Five shots is not very much," he said. "If you play well you can make it up easily."
Oakley, who won the Seniors Classic title in England last year,
is a Virginia native who lives in Orlando, Fla. He qualified in
1997 for the U.S. senior tour and played it unsuccessfully that
year. He has no plans to try to qualify for it again.
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