Fleck shoots his age

And other Senior PGA Championship leftovers

AKRON, Ohio -- Here's everything you wanted to know about the 63rd Senior PGA Championship and forgot to ask (because you don't really care):

The coolest thing of the week was 80-year-old former U.S. Open champion Jack Fleck bettering his age by three shots on a very difficult golf course, Firestone South, shooting 77 despite a double bogey on the final hole. He holed a 30-foot putt from the fringe to save par on the 15th hole. "That was probably the finest round of putting I may have had in my lifetime," said Fleck, who became famous for his upset of Ben Hogan in the '54 Open. Told that Tiger Woods has never shot his age, Fleck replied, "If he plays long enough, I'm sure he will." Fleck withdrew before the second round, however, because his caddie, a close friend, was hospitalized. ... Tom Watson might have made a better run at defending his title if not for his putting. Watson said he had four or five three-putts for the week plus a four-putt. "I'd like to come back [to Firestone] and give it another try," Watson said. "I left a lot on the table." ...

MAILBAG With the U.S. Open coming back to a true public course (not one with a $400 greens fee ) this year, what are the chances of other public courses hosting the U.S. Open or any other major in the future? Which courses? It's great thinking that I could head to New York someday and tee it up just like the pros did. —Chris Lindy, Evansville, Ind. Torrey Pines' South Course is a lock to get the 2008 Open, Chris. Bethpage Black is almost certain to get a permanent spot in the Open rotation after all the feel-good mileage it has earned for the USGA. Other than that, I can't think of many courses that could pull off an Open. Cog Hill's Dubsdread Course, the current site of the Western Open, could do it. I'm not sure there are any other non-resort public courses that are capable. Any nominations for future Open sites, readers? Time to weigh in on overrated wonderboy Aaron Baddeley. Here's a kid who beat Greg Norman to win big in Australia a year or two back, but failed to get a PGA Tour card and then did nothing on the European tour. Recently he failed to qualify for the U.S. Open (after receiving an exemption last year). Is it youth, conceit (badds.com) or a faulty game? Word is, he's not long enough for today's power golf. Is Baddeley the second coming of Eddie Pearce? —Ben Storey, Seattle Most boy wonders aren't ready for prime time, Storeytime. Take Justin Rose. After his British Open miracle, he was hailed as a hero and turned pro. He wasn't ready. Four years later, he's now just winning on the Euro tour. While it's possible that Badds may not make it big in pro golf, you've got to give him a couple of years to develop and refine his swing and his short game the way Rose and others have done. Tiger Woods and Sergio García, as young phenoms, made it look way too easy. My partner and I each hit our balls into the same sand trap. When we get to the trap we find our balls resting against each other. By rule, how do we play this situation? To hit one ball would disturb the other. —Rodney Zeisig, LaPorte, Ind. Player 1 marks his ball, allowing the other to play his shot. After Player 2 rakes the sand following his shot and returns the trap to its original condition, Player 1 replaces his ball and plays his shot. And according to the official Rules of Golf, whoever hits the sand shot farthest from the pin has to buy the other player a beer after the round. Hey, you can look it up.

Gary McCord has switched from his CBS commentator mode back into Senior player mode. After an opening 78, he rallied to finish 32nd, and he will be playing the next seven weeks. Toward that end, he is renting a van that his caddie, Joe (Gypsy) Grillo, will drive from tournament to tournament. "The airports are killing me," McCord said. "Somehow, I get red-flagged every time I fly. I buy so many one-way tickets. I'm getting round-trip tickets now but I'm still getting red-flagged and they're checking me, my golf bag. I've got to take it to get it X-rayed, then bring it back. I said, 'That's it, I'm getting a van.' I'm putting everything in it. I'm going to travel stark naked with just a briefcase. I'm putting all my staff in the van. If the airlines want to jack me around, I'm going to jack them around. Last time there, I talked to a supervisor and said, 'I've traveled for 30 years on my American Express card with full-fare first-class tickets. If you look in your database, you'll see I fly every week. I would be the least likely guy to be suspected. The guy who flies once a year and pays in bottlecaps, that might be the guy you want to look at.' They told me, 'The more you fly, the more we suspect you.' I said, 'Really?' What, I'm setting them up? I don't get it." After his golf run, McCord said, he'll go back to his TV job. "My next week off is sometime in September," he said. ...

More Mac attack: After he finished Sunday, McCord was asked if he'd had fun. "No." Did anybody have fun this week? "No." How tough was Firestone? "Obviously, it's not very tough," he joked. "A guy [Seiji Ebihara] shot 27 on the front nine. I guess the rest of us just have to play better." ... Bobby Wadkins was asked about making the Senior tour telecasts better. "If we could get Johnny Miller off the TV, that would be great. We all wish he would come back here. He's never hit a bad shot. We would like to see him come back and play." ... Chi Chi Rodriguez complained that Firestone South played too long for him. "This course is set up for the young guys, Arnie," Rodriguez, 66, told playing partner Arnold Palmer. "I'm a young guy," said the 72-year-old Palmer. "Maybe in Palm Beach," Rodriguez quipped. It might be time for Rodriguez to follow Lee Trevino's lead and skip the majors. ... Fuzzy Zoeller's caddie, Eric Schwarz, left the 18th green after the awards ceremony with some souvenirs. He had a ball signed by Zoeller, his caddie bib and the flag from the 18th green. "That's the first one of these I've saved in a while," said Schwarz, whose last win was with Corey Pavin at Colonial in 1996. ...

Mark McCumber has been too busy to play much tournament golf. One daughter (Megan) graduated from college and another (Addison) got married. Her new husband's name is McCarthy Crenshaw. "They went on their honeymoon to Bermuda," McCumber said. "At the Delta ticket counter, the agent said, 'Addison Crenshaw. Are you related to the famous golfer?' She started laughing and said, 'Yes, but it's not [Ben] Crenshaw.' I'm just hoping some of that name will rub off on my putting." ... Larry Nelson, who was in contention and ended up tied for sixth, talked about how he'd like to add the Senior PGA and Senior U.S. Open titles to his regular PGA and U.S. Open crowns. Only Jack Nicklaus, Trevino and Gary Player.have won all four of those championships. ... Funny man Zoeller, who famously put his foot in his mouth at the Masters a few years back, mixed a couple of metaphors and came up with the following, which was printed in the official tournament transcript. Talking about his transition to the Senior tour, he said, "I got a big ol' hunk of humble pie the first couple of weeks I was out there. I was getting my butt licked and I was enjoying it because I couldn't believe the quality of golf these guys still play." He made it sound more enjoyable than getting your butt kicked, at least.

King of the hill

So who's really the top dog on the Senior tour? Jim Thorpe won the year's first major, the Tradition, and Zoeller won the second, last week's Senior PGA. Hale Irwin, the dominant player on the tour for the past six years, leads the money list with $1.36 million in earnings and has two wins this year, but he may be slowing down. Tom Watson and Tom Kite have had a few moments, and now it looks as if Zoeller, a former U.S. Open champion, may be finding his game. Who's the real sheriff on this tour these days?

"I've got to go with Hale," said Bruce Fleisher. "He's there week in and week out. He's the one to beat."

Dana Quigley agreed: "It's still Hale, no question. He's the best player we've got. They let myself and Thorpe in there to pick up some crumbs, but Hale is awesome. He's probably the most fit player, he's 57 and strong as a bull. I'd love to play like that."

In 12 starts this year, Irwin has two victories, three seconds and a third. He has finished sixth or better in every event since his first tournament, the MasterCard Championship.

The money list is hardly an accurate way to determine who is No. 1 because players such as Quigley play every single week while Irwin, for instance, may play only 20 or 22 events. Therefore, the Seniors could use a ranking system. Kathy Bissell, founder of the syndicated cable TV program The Golf Show, has devised a rankings system. Though she majored in math in college, Bissell says "a fourth-grader with good math skills could handle this."

Players get points for top-30 finishes, with bonus points for winning (because it's tougher than finishing second) and double points for the majors. Because of the short career window players have on the Senior tour, Bissell counts only the last 12 months of competition. The points a player earned from last year's Senior PGA Championship, for instance, are eliminated when this year's Senior PGA Championship is played.

"At the Legends tournament, Doug Tewell said he wished there was some way to measure the Senior players," Bissell said. "He was pretty high up in the standings, but the implication was that rankings would show something different than the money list. I thought, Yeah, these guys probably deserve a system."

The rest is history. Bissell updates the rankings weekly, just like the World Ranking. Here are the current standings (I've added a player's rank on the money list in parentheses), followed by the rankings as they would have looked at the end of the 2001 season.

Rankings thru June 10
1. Tom Watson (14) 135.1
2. Fuzzy Zoeller (12) 133.2
3. Tom Kite (5) 131.1
4. Hale Irwin (1) 130.8
5. Bruce Lietzke (9) 125.3
6. Bobby Wadkins (7) 130.1
7. Morris Hatalsky 19) 129.8
8. Tom Purtzer (26) 129.2
9. Wayne Levi (30) 129.1
10. Bruce Fleisher (6) 129.0
11. Isao Aoki (20) 123.6
12. Ray Floyd (61) 127.2
13. Allen Doyle (11) 127.0
14. Larry Nelson (13) 126.6
15. Dana Quigley (3) 126.5
16. Jay Overton (47) 125.5
17. Doug Tewell (4) 125.1
18. Bob Gilder (10) 124.2
19. Gary McCord (25) 119.1
20. Mike McCullough (34) 119.0
21. Gil Morgan (22) 124.0
22. Jim Thorpe (8) 123.1
23. Jay Sigel (21) 118.1
24. John Jacobs (2) 117.4
25. Bruce Summerhays (29) 116.6
26. Walter Hall (18) 121.3
27. Tom Wargo (24) 116.0
28. Sammy Rachels (15) 116.1
29. Tom Jenkins (16) 116.0
30. Dave Stockton (23) 116.0
31. Dick Mast (45) 116.0
32. Don Pooley (35) 120.7
33. Ed Dougherty (27) 115.4
34. Stewart Ginn (33) 115.1
35. Jose Maria Canizares (31) 119.8
36. John Mahaffey (53) 114.6
37. Mike Hill (36) 114.1
38. George Archer (42) 114.1
39. John Schroeder (46) 113.8
40. Vicente Fernandez (38) 113.4
41. Jim Ahern (50) 118.3
42. Ted Goin (60) 113.3
43. Steven Veriato (59) 112.8
44. Jim Colbert (49) 117.3
45. Graham Marsh (41) 111.9
46. Hubert Green (28) 111.9
47. Dave Eichelberger (17) 111.8
48. Mike Smith (48) 111.6
49. J.C. Snead (62) 116.4
50. Joe Inman (68) 111.0

End of 2001 standings
1. Hale Irwin (3) 127.24
2. Doug Tewell (7) 126.65
3. Ray Floyd (34) 126.44
4. Tom Watson (17) 126.41
5. Allen Doyle (1) 126.18
6. Bruce Fleisher (2) 125.40
7. Larry Nelson (4) 125.16
8. Bruce Lietzke (16) 124.50
9. Gil Morgan (5) 124.16
10. Tom Kite (10) 123.40
11. Isao Aoki (31) 122.70
12. Jack Nicklaus (61) 121.50
13. Bobby Wadkins (33) 121.28
14. Howard Twitty (44) 121.07
15. Dana Quigley (9) 120.75
16. Mike McCullough (12) 120.65
17. Bob Gilder (8) 120.19
18. Jim Thorpe (6) 119.96
19. Don Pooley (60) 119.33
20. Jose Maria Canizares (14) 119.17
21. Gary McCord (23) 119.11
22. Walter Hall (11) 118.60
23. Jim Colbert (19) 118.41
24. Jim Ahern (24) 118.36
25. Jay Sigel (37) 118.09
26. Dave Stockton (36) 117.76
27. Bruce Summerhays (20) 117.66
28. Stewart Ginn (28) 117.61
29. Ed Dougherty (13) 117.25
30. Tom Jenkins (15) 117.08

Sports Illustrated senior writer Gary Van Sickle writes for the magazine's Golf Plus section and is a regular contributor to CNNSI.com. Click here to send him a question or comment.

 

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