THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407100178
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JIM DUCIBELLA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WILLIAMSBURG LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
Until baseball was invented, belt buckles and Vaseline were used to keep pants up and hair down. Suddenly, ``doctoring'' and ``loading'' took on meanings Americans hadn't before considered.
There isn't an offensive lineman who doesn't learn the intricacies of holding around the same time he learns the location of his locker and its combination. Some people even believe grabbing an opponent has been written into the rules.
Hand-checking, supposedly outlawed as a defensive tactic in pro hoops, has been elevated to such an art form that Fagin, Oliver Twist's fabled pickpocket, would make the perfect NBA tactician.
In tennis, there'd be no need for line judges, electronic or otherwise, if the players could be trusted to rule shots in or out.
And in soccer, Tab Ramos saw stars and stripes after taking a savage elbow from Brazil's Leonardo. What few have chosen to see was Ramos' hand clutching the back of the his opponent's jersey as he tried to motor downfield.
Golf stands alone among sports in its unyielding insistence on integrity and the determination with which competitors adhere to those guidelines.
Twice during this year's Anheuser-Busch Classic, players have called penalties on themselves after a rules violation occurred.
Curtis Strange did it first. Addressing a birdie putt on the par-5 third hole Friday, Strange saw the ball move, propelled maybe 1/1,000th of a turn forward by a gust of wind. He made the putt, then called an infraction no one else had seen.
Mark McCumber's was considerably more blatant Saturday, though he was equally up-front about fingering himself.
McCumber's ball was one foot off the fourth green. Playing partner Ronnie Black, whose ball was positioned behind McCumber, asked him to mark his ball.
Careful not to dislodge any of the mud stuck to the ball - another penalty - McCumber lifted the ball but neglected to designate his spot with a marker.
`` `Please tell me there's a coin there,' '' McCumber recalled ruefully later.
He called an official over, explained what happened, finished what would have been a birdie-3, then penciled ``4'' onto his card.
When play was completed, McCumber held just a one-stroke lead instead of a slightly more comfortable two-shot margin.
That McCumber is even on the leaderboard at Kingsmill is the result of another act of sportsmanship that sets golf apart from other games.
He was on the putting green during a recent outing in Chicago when former LPGA Star Donna Caponi approached. She said she'd watched him play for years, admired his game and wondered why he didn't win more often.
After they agreed the reason was McCumber's putting, Caponi offered to set up a lesson for him wth Dave Stockton, also at the outing.
Stockton gave McCumber several tips and the 1987 A-B Classic champion ``noticed an instant difference. And now it's becoming routine. Funny how somebody else can see what you're doing wrong but you can't, even though you're so close to it.''
The magnitude of Stockton's advice will be enormous should McCumber hold off the field today. Although he has pocketed about $2 million since winning the Western Open in 1989, the five-year victory drought has removed him from the consciousness of all but the most rabid golf fan.
``I've been in contention,'' he said. ``The fact is that I've basically been one good putting round from winning.''
As McCumber finished his session with the media, 36-hole leader Bob Lohr entered the press room. A moment before, he'd just made a double-bogey six that cost him outright possession of the lead for first time all week.
The two men shook hands and wished each other well. They'll likely do the same again today when they stand together on Kingsmill's first tee, the two contestants with the best chance of capturing the title.
``Ninety-eight percent of the players out here want you to play great,'' McCumber said. ``They just want to play better.''
In other words, sport as it should be. by CNB