AROUND THE GREENS
Irwin continues despite bad back
By Bill Kwon
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| Hale Irwin, who is recovering from a back injury, hopes for better days in Hawai'i, where he has won $3.2 million in winning six PGA events.
Advertiser library photo • Oct. 6, 2002 Turtle Bay Championship WHAT: Champions Tour event WHEN: From 8:20 a.m. tomorrow (first tee) and approximately 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday (first and 10th tees). WHERE: Palmer Course at Turtle Bay (Par 36-36—72, 7,044 yards) PURSE: $1.5 million ($225,000 first prize) FIELD: 80 senior PGA Tour players, including two-time defending champion Hale Irwin, Hilo's Steve Veriato, and the LPGA's Jan Stephenson, playing on a sponsor's exemption. ADMISSION: $10 daily beginning tomorrow. Children 17-under free with ticket-bearing adult. Parking, with shuttle service, is free. TV: The Golf Channel, 2 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily |
"I'll tee it up Friday and tell myself what have we got today?" said Irwin, who admits his game is nowhere what it should be right now.
"I'm trying to recover ever since. I'm not a 100 percent, maybe 80 to 85 percent. But my game is suffering from a lack of practice. I had to pull out from so many events," Irwin said. "I don't know how effective I can be. Maybe if I get hot and make a few putts, I could win. But, basically, it's one step after another for me."
That step-by-step game plan seems to be working.
Irwin, who holds the senior tour's single-season record of $3,028,304 set last season, passed the $1 million mark in earnings for the eighth straight year, extending his own record.
Ranked 11th on the 2003 money list, Irwin can also set records for the most years on the top-10 money list and most consecutive top-10 finishes with a strong finish in the final three tournaments. He's at eight and counting with Miller Barber and Bob Charles.
With his victory in the Kinko's Classic before his back spasm, Irwin also tied Barber for the most consecutive years (9) with at least one victory.
Wait, there's more. Irwin can set two more records with a victory this week.
He can be the first senior to win a single event five times. The PGA Tour views the Turtle Bay Championship as an extension of the Ka'anapali Classic when the event moved from Maui to Oahu's North Shore.
Irwin won at Ka'anapali in 1997 and 2000 before making it two in a row at Turtle Bay in 2001 and last year. Irwin is tied with Jack Nicklaus, who won The Tradition four times.
Also, six, including Irwin in two different tournaments, have won a single event three consecutive years. But Irwin can be the first to make it four in a row with a victory Sunday.
"I don't pay attention to it," Irwin said of the records.
He's taking an if it happens, it happens attitude. He's just trying to get through this season without further aggravating his back by limiting his practice sessions and not playing in both of the tour's back-to-back pro-ams.
Based on his track record in the Islands, there is no better place than Hawai'i for Irwin, who had enjoyed a 22-year affiliation with Kapalua, to finish the year on a high note.
"I've certainly had remarkable success here. Turtle Bay, Ka'anapali, the MasterCard (Championship) at Hualalai, the (Senior) Skins Game. The Hawaiian Open one year (1981)," Irwin said. "Nothing like being back in paradise. Maybe I'll roll around in the sand."
He has collected $3.2 million in winning six PGA tournaments in Hawai'i, besides earning nearly $1 million in winning the Senior Skins Game three times. In 2002, he set a Senior Skins record by collecting $450,000.
Irwin has yet to hear who will be invited to next January's Senior Skins competition at Wailea, Maui. "I'm sure they'll invite Lee Trevino back and the No. 1 money winner. But I'd like to know, so I can make plans for early next year."
And don't count out the possibility of Irwin playing in the Sony Open next January. "I considered it last year and may think about it again," said Irwin, who will be at Hualalai the following week for the MasterCard Championship.
"So much of my schedule early next year will depend on how my back feels. It's going to depend on how I feel after the offseason," he said.
Before he won the Kinko's Classic, Sports Illustrated said that Irwin, who turned 58 in June, was finished.
"I don't always believe what I read," Irwin said. "I know what I believe and what I can do. My ability is still there. My interest is still there."
Irwin, the career leader in money earnings ($18 million) and victories (37) on the Champions Tour, is not ready to abdicate his throne as king of the seniors. Considering his aching back, he has finished under par in all but one of 19 tournaments this year, 29 dating to 2002.
As he told the media after his victory earlier this year, "It'll be over when I say it's over. And I haven't said it's over."
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
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Friday's Tee Times
First Tee
8:20 a.m.—Bobby Waizel, John Harris, Luis Carbonetti. 8:30—Ted Goin, Pat McDonald, Bobby Lincoln. 8:40—Rocky Thompson, Gary Koch, Bobby Mitchell. 8:50—Bob Duval, Bob Murphy, Lon Hinkie.
9—Walter Morgan, Babe Hiskey, Rik Massengale. 9:10—Walter Zembriski, Mark Hayes, Jim Simons. 9:20—Tommy Aaron, Howard Twitty, George Burns. 9:30—Jerry McGee, Dick Lotz, Dan Haildorson. 9:40—Tom Jenkins, Stewart Ginn, Dave Eichelberger.
10—Bob Gilder, Tom Kite, Isao Aoki. 10:10—Rodger Davis, Tom Purtzer, Dave Barr. 10:20—Allen Doyle, Dana Quigley, Chi Chi Rodriguez. 10:30—D.A. Weibring, Jim Thorpe, Ed Dougherty. 10:40—Don Pooley, Walter Hall, Jim Colbert. 10:50—James Mason, John Schroeder, Joe Inman.
11—Morris Hatalsky, Hale Irwin, Graham Marsh. 11:10—J.C. Snead, Steven Veriato, Mike McCullough. 11:20—John Jacobs, Jim Ahem, Vicente Fernandez. 11:30—Jim Albus, Terry Dill, Andy Bean. 11:50—Larry Ziegler, Mark Pfeil, Rex Caldwell.
Noon—Hugh Baiocchi, Bob Eastwood, Ed Fiori. 12:10—Fred Gibson, Bob Dickson, DeWitt Weaver. 12:20—Bruce Summerhays, Tom Shaw, Danny Edwards. 12:30—John Bland, Mike Smith, Dick Mast. 12:40—Jay Overton, Rick Rhoden, Jan Stephenson. 12:50—Jim Holtgrieve, Jack Spradlin, Lonnie Nielsen.
1—Butch Sheehan, Mike San Filippo, Peter Martin.
