Eichelberger changes to champ
Posted: Monday July 12, 1999 03:08 PM
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Sometimes the game of golf is so simple it makes you
crazy. Dave Eichelberger is a long-hitting Texan -- nicknamed
Eagle-berger because he reaches a lot of par-5s in two -- who has always hit the
hard draw. He hasn't been able to hit a fade, he says, for the last 15 years. So
Wednesday at the U.S. Senior Open he changes his grip, making it more neutral by
turning his left hand a little to the left. All of a sudden, he's hitting a
nice, controlled fade off the tee with his driver. All of a sudden, he's hitting
fairways. Which means all of a sudden, he's in contention at the Senior Open.
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| THE SHORT
GAME |
| Inman on Eichelberger's strength -- his mental game: "Dave Eichelberger
calls a spade a damn shovel. He's not afraid to win. He's won at every level
he's ever played. He can hit the ball out of bounds five times in a row and
stand on tee and swing just as hard at the sixth one. He doesn't win all the
time because he's wild. Sometimes he hits it off the end of the world, but when
he's on and he gets close he's not afraid to win, and he showed it today."
... Workers at an Arby's restaurant near the course wore T-shirts all week that
said, "Welcome Senior Open golfers and fans." As if Senior Open
players were going to skip the free clubhouse buffets to pay for fast food at
Arby's. I asked an employee if any golfer had been in all week. No, he said. ...
Mary Kramer, president of the Iowa State Senate, worked as a volunteer in
the media center. ... USGA fearless leader David Fay on Des Moines'
Senior Open frenzy: "This is the biggest thing to hit Iowa since Professor
Harold Hill tried to set up a band." That's a reference from the
musical The Music Man. And now, Alex, let's try Potpourri for $200. ...
Senior Open frenzy, continued: In the media center, a seat was reserved for the
U.S. Army Public Affairs. It went unused. Sounds like somebody from the army
just wanted a free pass to spectate. ... Samuel Littles, a former caddie
at Augusta National, teed it up with the seniors. He shot 81 the first day and
told friends that Des Moines Country Club was much tougher than Augusta. He
didn't post a second-round score because he ran out of golf balls, breaking the
one-ball rule, and was disqualified. ... Nobody had a better week than Jim
Ahern, a former Des Moines Country Club pro who is trying to play his way
onto the Senior tour. He was treated like a king. "I had five great years
here and I loved it. I've been gone 14 years but it's like I never left,"
he said. His week was made when a man in his 70s, a club member, thanked Ahern
for curing his duck hook and improving his game.. "You get the real
satisfaction from teaching, when you help people," Ahern said. "I've
been away 14 years and the guy still isn't hooking. That's good." Ahern
came back to Des Moines believing he could win the Open. He tied for 18th. He
plans to keep playing in Monday qualifiers the rest of the
season. | | |
The severely undulating greens at Des Moines Country Club (we now see where
Pete Dye was heading down the wrong path as a designer in the mid-1960s
when this track was built) decided this Open, but those who missed fairways were
already beaten by the time they got to those greens. Eichelberger, who ranked
75th on the Senior tour in driving accuracy, tied for seventh in that category
at the Senior Open. Ed Dougherty, whom Eichelberger overtook on the final
five holes, not surprisingly ranked
first.
Eichelberger took his grip change, he said, right out of Ben Hogan's
classic instruction book. "I was just trying to get the neutral left hand
-- left thumb right down the top of the shaft," Eichelberger said.
"The first time I felt like I could hit a fade with it was here. I never
tried to hook the ball one time with the driver all week. I aimed everything
down the left side and cut it back into the
fairway."
A simple grip change, a simple mindset change and a guy goes from journeyman to
Open champion. It's that simple,
apparently.
TAKE TWO : A mistake by Joe Inman nearly cost Eichelberger a
two-stroke penalty. Inman, playing in the group ahead of Eichelberger in
Sunday's final round, left his putter leaning against the table on the first tee
and didn't notice it was missing until he had wedged onto the first green and
was about to putt. Realizing where he'd left it, he sent his caddie running back
to the tee. Meanwhile, Eichelberger's caddie found the putter, a model similar
to what Eichelberger uses, and stuck it in the bag. An official radioed back to
the tee that Inman had forgotten his putter, and it was retrieved. Had
Eichelberger teed off with an extra putter in his bag, he would've been assessed
a two-shot penalty for exceeding the 14-club limit. Had it gone unnoticed and he
teed off on the second hole, he would've drawn another two shots. "It
wasn't that close," Eichelberger said of the potential penalty. "I
always count my clubs -- on the range, on the tee, in the parking
lot."
Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle is a regular contributor to the magazine's Golf Plus edition.
The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.
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