THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 13, 1996 TAG: 9607130275
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 294 lines
A big gallery was following Curtis Strange's group at Inverrary in Florida in the late 1970s. They were walking on a cartpath bridge when Strange's caddie tripped.
``He was going over about a 12-foot drop into a canal,'' Strange said. ``I saved him, I held his arm and some other guy held his legs.''
But no one could save Strange's clubs. The dropped in the drink, all but his 2-iron, 5-iron and putter.
Fortunately, Strange only had to play one more hole in the round. Unfortunately, he was on the bubble as far as making the cut. Although Strange said the rules would have enabled him to replace his clubs, he used the small selection he had to par the hole and make the cut.
That night, the tournament hired a diver to fish Strange's clubs out of the canal.
- STEVE CARLSON 15 more wacky stories inside, Page C4 [The following stories appeared on page C4.] JOEY SINDELAR How about the time we carjacked the delivery guy
Joey Sindelar and his playing partners were at the 1988 Honda Classic in Florida when they saw a thunderstorm brewing on the horizon. A horn blew halting play, and they began scrambling for cover.
``We're wondering what to do, and here comes a van right behind the tee,'' Sindelar said. ``We flag the van down, and he's looking at us like we're crazy. We jump in the van and say, `Take us to the clubhouse,' because this is a brutal storm.''
By the time they got to the clubhouse five minutes later, the storm had subsided, having skirted the golf course. The players ran into the clubhouse to ask how long the rain delay would last, only to find out that play was about start again.
``Now we're panicking and sweating,'' Sindelar said.
They hopped back in the van, and implored the elderly driver to quickly get them back to the tee before they would be disqualified. The driver had initially been on the course to deliver something to the concession stand - not to transport players - and didn't know the course layout.
``We're screaming and yelling, `Take us here, take us there,' '' Sindelar said. ``He didn't know anything about the golf course. He probably thought we were car-jacking him. We get back out on the tee just in time for the whistle to blow to start playing again.
``Then I went on to win the tournament.''
- STEVE CARLSON
FORREST FEZLER There isn't a phone booth around, so this will have to do
They are called professional golfers, so they are expected to look professional. It doesn't matter if it's 95 degrees and 90 percent humidity, long pants are the rule on Tour.
At the 1983 U.S. Open at Oakmont, Forrest Fezler made a protest of the requirement for long pants. Before playing his 72nd hole of the tournament, he slipped into a port-a-john and put on a pair of shorts. Fezler had clued-in an Associated Press photographer of his stunt, and the wire service moved a picture of Fezler going into the portable toilet with long pants on and coming out in shorts.
A storm postponed play for the final groups in the tournament until Monday, so the AP photos of Fezler were played prominently in newspapers nationwide.
``I got a lot of press out of it the last 10-12 years,'' Fezler said. ``It was a statement. I was kind of protesting. I think you could wear shorts out here. You don't see anybody (in the gallery) out here that has long pants when it's 95 degrees and it's hot and it's humid.''
However, Fezler said he recently saw on television an Australian tournament in which pros were wearing shorts. Tom Watson was sporting knee-high beige socks.
``You can see why they don't let us wear shorts,'' Fezler said.
- STEVE CARLSON GARY HALLBERG When's the last time you had to use a ladder to reach your ball?
Getting up-and-down for par is essential to be successful on the PGA Tour.
But rarely does it require getting up on - and down from - a rooftop.
In 1982, Gary Hallberg's approach shot to the 16th green at Indian Wells Country Club in Palm Desert, Calif., hit a cart path and bounced onto the roof of the clubhouse. As is common in desert architecture, the roof was flat with tile and gravel on it.
The ball was not out of bounds, so the course manager got a ladder for him and Hallberg went up on the roof.
``I had a pretty good lie,'' Hallberg said.
He had about 70 yards to the hole, but could not see the green. He hit a chip between two big palm trees, and the ball ended up 40 feet from the hole. He made the putt.
Simple chip and a putt for a par.
- STEVE CARLSON HAL SUTTON The ball that was in the hole, but not in the cup
When is a ball in the hole not in the hole?
When it doesn't hit the bottom of the cup, as Hal Sutton found out once in Tucson, Ariz. Sutton hit a shot that plugged into the lip of the cup. A rules official said it was not in the hole, and Sutton had to back the ball - which was virtually submerged - up out of the cup until it stayed on the green so that he could putt it.
``Good things like that always happen to me,'' Sutton said.
- STEVE CARLSON TIM SIMPSON What a sight that must have been, a golfer landing in a bunker
Jay Delsing tells a story about Tim Simpson's mis-step one year at Hilton Head.
On the 13th hole, greenside bunkers are constructed with railroad ties on the edges. Simpson was on the green, took a couple steps backward and ended up in the sand.
``The look on his face must have been priceless,'' Delsing said. ``It's quite a drop - it's not steep but it kind of goes at an incline. He kind of rolled down there. Any time you see a pro rolling in the sand, that's a pretty good treat. I kind of wish I had been in the group, because it would have been fun to see.''
- STEVE CARLSON RICHARD ZOKOL It's not nice to fool Jack Nicklaus, especially at Pebble Beach
Self-described practical joker Richard Zokol was playing a Monday practice round with fellow Canadian Jim Nelford prior to the 1987 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am when he got up the nerve to pull a prank on none other than Jack Nicklaus.
Zokol and Nelford were playing in front of Englishman Howard Clark and Nicklaus. By the time Zokol reached the famous par-3 16th at Cypress Point, the storied Northern California fog had moved in: The green was not visible from the tee.
After playing the hole, Zokol waited for a ball to land, scrambled onto the green, picked it up and deposited it in the cup.
``There was a huge gallery following Nicklaus,'' Zokol said. ``But when I picked up the ball, I realized it was Howard's, not Jack's, because Jack at the time was playing MacGregor and this ball was a Spalding.
``Well, I ran like hell off the green and we were in the middle of the 17th fairway when we hear this huge roar. Here's Howard, playing one of the most famous holes in the world for the first time in the fog and thinking he made a hole-in-one.''
Zokol left a note stuck in the ground for Clark at the 18th tee: ``Welcome to the PGA Tour. Signed, The Crazy Canucks.''
``Howard comes walking off the 18th green and looks at me and says, `Did I make a one?' '' Zokol said. ``I said `Uh-uh.' He tells Jack and Jack says, `Well, what are we going to do with the bet?' ''
Mad at the moment, Nicklaus had warmed to the practical joke by Wednesday when he gave a keynote speech to the Golf Writers Association of America. During the dinner, he told the story to big laughs.
``He wasn't too pleased when it happened,'' Zokol said. ``But when he saw me on the practice green Thursday morning, he patted me on the shoulder and said, `That was OK.' ''
- RICH RADFORD MIKE SULLIVAN That'll teach him not to return things - won't it?
In college at the University of Florida, Gary Koch lived next door to Andy Bean and Mike Sullivan. Bean had a habit of borrowing Sullivan's possessions without asking and, often, without returning them.
One day, he borrowed Sullivan's shaving kit without asking. While he was gone, Sullivan bought some apoxy glue and apoxied all of Bean's possessions to the top of his dresser - his can of shaving cream, his razor, his toothbrush.
- JIM DUCIBELLA TOMMY ARMOUR III The day that Curtis' Strange Navy went overboard
Tommy Armour III took the opportunity to play to the crowd at Kingsmill in 1990 when he and playing partner Greg Norman decided to chuck more than a dozen golf balls into the James River at the 17th hole and watch Curtis' Strange Navy scramble after them.
``We didn't know what kind of reaction it would get, but we had an idea,'' said Armour. ``We talked about it at the tee and when we finished putting, we went to our bags and just started launching balls.''
With approximately two dozen boats anchored by the par-3 17th, there were dozens of people on the boats, many with a few drinks in them.
``People were scrambling everywhere to get those balls,'' Armour said. ``They were literally leaping off the boats. Greg and threw about eight balls each into the water. We had a blast.''
- RICH RADFORD GARY KOCH Boy, this bag sure is getting heavier...and heavier...
Gary Koch, Curtis Strange, Billy Andrade and a fourth player whose name Koch can't remember were playing a practice round at Muirfield Village in Columbus, Ohio, one year. The four players and three caddies decided to pay a little trick on one of the caddies. Everytime his back was turned away from his bag, one of the players or one of the other caddies would take something out of their bad and slip it inside the other caddie's bag.
Shortly after the turn, the caddie began complaining about how tired he was and how he'd never had so much trouble carrying his player's bag around the course.
It wasn't until they reached the 16th or 17th hole that they told the caddie what they done. When he emptied his bag, among the things he found inside were four rainsuits and six dozen golf balls.
- JIM DUCIBELLA JAY SELSING Gee, booted ball sure seemed like a funny thing at the time...
On the 18th hole of his final round at a tournament in Abilene, Texas, one year, Jay Delsing marked his ball and threw it to his caddie to clean it off.
The caddie dropped the ball, reached for it and booted it into a pond alongside the green. The gallery, Delsing and playing partners Jeff Sluman and David Edwards all had a good laugh.
The next week, a rules official asked Delsing about the incident. Turns out Delsing should have been assessed a penalty for a lost ball, which no one in the group realized at the time.
``If they would have caught wind of it before the tournament became official, I would have been disqualified,'' Delsing said. ``It should have been a one-stroke penalty. I would have killed my caddie.''
- STEVE CARLSON GARY HALLBERG But honest, Couples told me to keep my hand in the cup
Gary Hallberg was playing with Fred Couples - who always has a big gallery - at Greensboro in the mid-1980s. Hallberg had about a 2-foot putt and Couples a 1-footer. Hallberg tapped in.
``I get my hand in the hole and he says to me `Stay down there and get mine out,' '' Hallberg said. ``So he putts while my hand is in the hole. I jerk my hand out of the hole real fast, and the ball lips out and almost hits me in the foot.
``To the gallery, it looked like I was down there trying to make him miss. He says, `Hey man, what are you trying to do?' really loud. Now the gallery are all mad at me and they start heckling me. It was pretty funny.''
- STEVE CARLSON BARRY JAECKEL Here's how Gay Brewer hit the perfect 3-foot wedge shot
In 1978, Barry Jaeckel was playing with Gay Brewer at the Hartford Open at Wethersfield Country Club.
``On a par-4, Gay was over the green and in some fluffy grass in two,'' says Jaeckel. ``While he was taking his last practice swing with a wedge, a piece of freshly chewed bubblegum stuck to the face of his club.''
Brewer, unaware, hit what he thought was the perfect shot. It started towards the green then, as if connected to a bungee cord, came back at him, landing three feet away.
``Brewer, nicknamed Hound Dog for the usually dour expression on his face, flashed an incredulous look at the ball,'' says Jaeckel. ``Then, like everyone else, he fell to his knees, laughing at his incredible bad luck.''
- JIM DUCIBELLA MARK MCCUMBER Hmmm...now where could I have put my ball marker?
Mark McCumber won at Kingsmill by three shots in 1994, but this anecdote would have been hard to laugh at had he lost by a stroke.
At the fifth hole on Saturday, playing partner Ronnie Black's ball was 20 feet behind McCumber's ball, which was on the fringe. Black wanted to hit a chip that ran through the fringe, and asked McCumber to mark.
Knowing he could not clean it because he was not on the green, McCumber gingerly picked up the ball so as to not remove a clump of mud. After Black hit, McCumber went to put his ball back.
One problem: He failed to put down a mark.
``I looked at him and I said `Ronnie, I'm in trouble. I gotta take a penalty for this,' '' McCumber said. ``We both kind of started laughing.
``But I'm tied for the lead and I'm thinking: `Wow, that wasn't very good.' ''
- STEVE CARLSON ROGER MALTBIE If Trevino's your partner, there's no dead air time
At the Phoenix Open in 1976, second-year pro and lifetime comic Roger Maltbie found himself in the lead after three rounds. On Sunday he was paired for the first time with loquacious Lee Trevino.
``Obviously I was very nervous,'' Maltbie said. ``I really didn't know what to expect. We got up on the first tee and he looked at me and he said, `Son, when you play golf with me, you got two choices: Talk or listen.' It was really true. I don't have any problem talking, so we had a good time.''
- STEVE CARLSON BOBBY CLAMPETT You've heard of a two-piece ball? This was a two-piece driver
Bobby Clampett, known as much today for his TV commentary as for his play, recalled showing up at the clubhouse before the third round of the Byron Nelson Classic some years back, only to find his caddy standing at the practice green holding his driver in two pieces.
Seems Clampett's bag was being stored on the top shelf of the bag room and one of the attendants had broken the driver while shoving Clampett's bag into its cubby.
``I had an hour before I played, so I ran over to Dave Remmy at the True Temper trailer,'' Clampett said. ``He handed me the club minutes before I teed off.''
Clampett didn't hit any practice balls with the rebuilt driver, fearful the glue job on either the grip or the clubhead might not have set.
So what's so funny about that?
``Almost the same thing had happened to me earlier in my career at San Diego,'' Clampett said. ``That time, my driver head flew off on the practice tee 30 minutes before I was supposed to play. I played the front nine hitting 3-wood off every tee and put the driver back in my bag at the turn.''
- RICH RADFORD ILLUSTRATION: JANET SHAUGHNESSY
The Virginian-Pilot
Photos by CNB