DATE: Thursday, October 9, 1997             TAG: 9710090686

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C2   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: JIM DUCIBELLA

                                            LENGTH:   44 lines

MINI-PROFILE

Rose

Graphic

A look at one of the PGA Tour's lesser-known players - but

someone to keep an eye on at this week's Michelob Championship:

Birthplace/residence: Goldsboro, N.C.

Exempt status: 1996 tournament winner

Tour victories: 1; 1996 Sprint International

Best 1997 finish: T5, Greater Milwaukee Open, Tucson Open

Represents: Ping, Pizza Inn, Titleist/Footjoy

Clubs you play: Ping, though they just dropped me. Every time I

see the Ping guy, I hold up a couple of fingers, like to say, ``Just

three more weeks, just two more weeks.''

Your dream foursome: My dad Haywood Rose, Byron Nelson, Sam Snead

and me.

Best shot you ever hit under pressure: The 20-foot birdie putt I

made to win the 1996 Sprint International.

Funniest thing that happened to you on the golf course: I made a

hole-in-one at the Memorial Tournament one year and I was playing

with Andy North and Barry Jaeckel. As we're walking off the tee,

Barry tells me I've just won $25,000. I don't believe them at first,

but Andy says the information was written in some info packet we'd

been given and I figured I must have missed it. So I go nuts. I find

my wife in the gallery and I'm yelling, ``Jan, $25,000! $25,000! we

got $25,000!'' and I'm shaking my fist. When we get to the next

hole, Andy tells me, ``Clarence, we were just kidding. There's no

$25,000.' ''

Favorite sports team, and why: Clemson's sports teams, because I

went there.

What you'd do for a living if you weren't a pro golfer: I'd be a

major-league catcher.

What you do to get away from golf: Well, let me put it this way:

At home, they call me ``Yard Man.'' I like landscaping and things

like that.

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