Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 25, 1990                   TAG: 9004250718
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C5   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS                                LENGTH: Medium

GOLF'S MENTAL ASPECTS STAND IN SUTTON'S WAY

Sutton and Greg Norman tied for second in the USF&G Classic last year, two strokes behind Tim Simpson, and all three are back for this year's $1-million renewal.

Sutton's game bottomed out in 1988, when he finished 88th on the earnings list. He was back up to 23rd last year and goes into Thursday's tournament No. 49. Any problems are mental, not physical, he said.

"There are hundreds of decisions made out there every day," Sutton said. "Sometimes I haven't made the right decisions. Sometimes I've made the right decisions at the wrong time."

Sutton grew up in Shreveport in northwestern Louisiana, and he said one of the reasons he plays in New Orleans is to be back in his home state.

He said he also likes the English Turn golf course, designed by Jack Nicklaus and opened just last year. "Last year, it was in very good condition," he said. "I thought it was one of Nicklaus' better-designed golf courses.

"There are holes out there you have to grab by the throat, and there are others you don't. The important thing is knowing which one."

Until last year, the 7,106-yard course was a swamp across the Mississippi River from the main part of New Orleans. Nicklaus, his engineers and a huge work force dug drainage bayous and pumped in three million cubic yards of dirt, creating undulating mounds in an area otherwise as flat as a pool table.

There was some slippage. Part of the green on the par-3 No. 8 tried to resume its former identity, creating a ridge not planned by Nicklaus, the golfing great who has added golf course architecture to his list of accomplishments.

That has been repaired.

The forecast is for temperatures in the mid-80s and thundershowers every afternoon of the tournament, which begins Thursday.

It took seven days to complete the tournament in 1958. In both 1982 and 1985, rain cut the tournament to 54 holes, and the first round was postponed in 1986, forcing a 36-hole finish on Sunday.

Last year, the first after moving from Lakewood Country Club, almost a foot of rain fell on Tuesday and Wednesday, wiping out the pro-am and turning parking lots into muddy ponds.

This year's field includes 26 of the tour's top 60 money winners, headed by leader Mark Calcavecchia, who has won $572,744 this year. Norman, No. 4 with $443,313 in six PGA tournaments, and Jodie Mudd, No. 5 with $383,935, are the other top-ten money winners in the USF&G field.

Jay Haas won a blast-off against Steve Elkington on the ninth and final hole Tuesday to win the $10,200 Merrill Lynch Shoot-Out.

Others in the field, and the order in which they were eliminated, were Scott Hoch, Jim Thorpe, Tom Watson, Mike Hulbert, Sutton, Simpson, Ben Crenshaw and Brian Tennyson.