ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 2, 1996 TAG: 9610020050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HOT SPRINGS
SOURCE: DANIEL UTHMAN STAFF WRITER
WALTER MORGAN served in Vietnam, so sinking a putt wasn't the hardest thing he's ever done.
Sixteen years ago, Walter Morgan went to qualifying school and missed the cut to make the PGA Tour by one stroke. One year ago, his peers on the Senior PGA Tour voted him Comeback Player of the Year.
On the surface, it would seem he had nothing to come back from. The man never played on the regular circuit. But peeking into his past says something different.
Morgan, 55, spent 20 years in the U.S. Army. Twice he was the All-Service golf champion. Twice he served in Vietnam.
So when his wife, Geraldine, bowed her head Tuesday on the 17th and final green at The Homestead's Cascades course and said to herself, ``Lord, help him,'' it was nothing new. The new part was her husband was putting for $130,000 and the 1996 Merrill Lynch Senior Shoot-Out Championship.
Morgan sank the putt, a difficult 8-footer, for a birdie on the Shoot-Out's ninth and final hole. Runner-up Bob Murphy only could muster a par score. And in one stroke, Morgan won one-fifth as much money as he's won in five years on the Senior Tour.
Asked what he'd do with the cash, Morgan turned to his wife and said, ``I don't know. She controls the money.''
On the final, decisive hole, Morgan teed off first, firing his shot into ideal position along the right edge of the fairway. Murphy sent his straight for a tree on the left side. After who knows how many broken branches, Murphy's ball popped out and rolled to the middle of the fairway.
``I was trying to hit a draw,'' Murphy said at the time. ``I can't hit a draw.''
``You're so lucky,'' Morgan said to his foe, a man of Irish descent.
Morgan has never gotten by on luck. In his life, he's more often relied on perseverance.
Morgan, of New Bern, N.C., was the only African-American in Tuesday's field. It's sad that a man in this sport can still be noticed by skin color, if nothing else. But it is happening again today with the arrival of young Tiger Woods, a man Morgan calls ``a savior of the game,'' on the PGA Tour.
``I've heard some of the things he's been saying and I agree with him,'' Morgan said of the 20-year-old Woods. ``He's going through some of the same things I went through.''
After years outside professional golf, waiting for his 50th birthday and the right to play with the Seniors, Morgan knows his limitations. Even if he pushes the limits of a golfers' reason.
On No.16, the second-to-last hole, Morgan and the remaining golfers, Murphy and defending champion Dave Stockton, each got within 250 yards with their tee shots. A pond separated them from the green. Murphy and Stockton, well confident of their abilities, played it safe and laid up short of the water. In a ``Damn the torpedoes''-type move, Morgan went for the hole.
``Well, I had the correct yardage, I had the right club in my hand,'' he explained. ``I said, `These guys are better wedge players than I am, and I think I can knock it on the green.' So I went for it.''
Morgan actually knocked it a foot beyond the green. Seems he's equally adept at heaving hand grenades and hammering golf balls. A squibber of a chip shot put him within eight inches of the cup, keeping him alive for the final hole.
Eight other golfers had dropped out by then. Hot Springs native J.C. Snead was eliminated on the sixth hole, same as last year. Jim Colbert, winner of last weekend's Vantage Championship at Tanglewood in Clemmons, N.C., went out on the next hole. South African John Bland finished sixth and Japanese national Isao Aoki was seventh. Current Senior money leader Hale Irwin went out on hole No.1.
``Our circuit right now is like the [PGA] circuit was when I first started,'' Colbert said. ``All the best players are playing here. We don't have to chase them all over the world.''
Morgan has been all around the world of golf and all around the world in general. On Tuesday, he was right at home at The Homestead.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 linesby CNB