Thursday, January 17, 2002
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Seniors gather If history holds true at the $1.5 million MasterCard Championship, Larry Nelson will not win his 17th Senior PGA Tour event.
for MasterCard
The $1.5 million, 54-hole event
starts tomorrow at HualalaiBy Paul Arnett
parnett@starbulletin.comThe 54-hole tournament begins tomorrow at Hualalai Golf Club at Ka'upulehu on the Big Island, where Nelson will try to successfully defend one of the more prestigious tournaments on the Senior Tour. The problem is, nobody has made that tricky putt since the winners-only event moved from Puerto Rico to Hawaii in 1997.
That year, Hale Irwin won the tournament but hasn't been able to repeat. Neither has 1998 champion Gil Morgan, John Jacobs (1999) or George Archer (2000). Nobody would like to break that trend more than Nelson, who has won 11 Senior Tour events the last two years.
"It's always tough to repeat anywhere, but especially here," Nelson said. "That's because you're facing all the other guys who have won the previous year. This is always going to be a very challenging field. It's a lot like a major."
Nelson won last year by firing a final-round 66 to hold off hard-charging Jim Thorpe by one stroke. Thorpe is back in this year's field of 33 golfers as well. There were originally 35 winners, but two professionals have withdrawn. They are Raymond Floyd and Jack Nicklaus.
Nicklaus will take part in next week's Senior Skins at Wailea with Irwin, Fuzzy Zoeller and Arnold Palmer. According to tour officials, he has a variety of ailments and decided not to play this week in order to rest a sore knee and bad back, common ailments in people over 60.
Those notables who are in the elite field include Jacobs, Irwin, Archer, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Gary Player, Bruce Fleisher, Allen Doyle, Lee Trevino and Bruce Lietzke. Lietzke joined the Senior Tour in July and promptly won two tournaments. He had seven Top 10 finishes and even placed third at the 2001 Senior Tour Championship.
That's not bad for a golfer who has played in a minimal number of tournaments throughout his career. The Dallas resident won 13 times on the PGA Tour but often missed big chunks of the season to be with his family and to do his other major love in life -- fishing.
He might be one of those seniors who lands a championship this season because he's able to play in the wind. The breezes have been relatively calm on the Kona Coast all week, but weather forecasts call for some dicey conditions this weekend.
Fellow Texans Kite and Lanny Wadkins can also negotiate the windy weather should it arise over the weekend, giving the tournament a very competitive feel.
"The older you get, the harder it is to win here," Irwin said. "As a senior, you only have so many chances to win at any one spot. It's not like the PGA Tour, where you can play 20 or 30 years. Every year, younger guys are coming out and competing against you. It's what makes our tour so interesting."
Two notable newcomers who could be in this event next year are Zoeller and Ben Crenshaw. Both were big-time winners on the PGA Tour who should have an immediate impact in 2002. Many in this year's MasterCard Championship field got new leases on their golf lives, including Doyle and Fleisher.
After a distinguished amateur career, Doyle joined the Senior Tour in 1999 and has not only won seven tournaments, but also captured the Schwab Cup last year and donated the entire $1 million bonus to charity.
Fleisher had minimal success on the PGA Tour, winning only one event in 1991, but since turning 50 in 1999, he has won 14 Senior tournaments and $2.4 million in earnings.
"The Senior Tour has obviously been kind to me," Fleisher said. "And to be able to get back to a tournament like the MasterCard is always a good indicator at how your previous year went. Everybody here this week has won at least one tournament, so you know you're facing the very best."