Kite Shoots 69 and Wins by 6 at La Costa

You wouldn’t think a pro today could win a tournament as easily as Tom Kite won the MONY Tournament of Champions, which ended Sunday. After all, the field included 25 other champions and some of the PGA’s household names. The tournament is rated highly by the professionals, who seem to have some enthusiasm for it and, in fact, view it as a semi-major event. And the money is good--$400,000, of which $72,000 goes to the winner.

Yet, Kite was able to lead every round and breeze to a six-stroke victory. He shot a 69 Sunday at the La Costa Country Club to finish with a 72-hole total of 275, 13 under par.

Nobody came closer than three shots to Kite Sunday. Of the players nearest him at the end of 54 holes, only Mark McCumber, who started the round five strokes behind him, was able to break par. He shot a 70 and finished second at 281.

Meanwhile, Scott Simpson, playing with Kite, shot a 73 and dropped back to third place after trailing by only three strokes at the close of Saturday’s round. Simpson lost about $8,000 when he bogeyed the 18th hole.

Fuzzy Zoeller and Lanny Wadkins, who were only four strokes behind Kite at the end of 54 holes, shot 73 and 75, respectively, finishing at 283 and 285. Mark O’Meara tied Zoeller by shooting a five-under-par 67.

The only other player besides Kite and O’Meara to break 70 on a cool, windy day was Raymond Floyd, who had a 68.

Oddly, Peter Thomson also led all four rounds as he won the seniors division of the tournament by three strokes over Don January and Dan Sikes, shooting scores of 70, 70, 71 and 73 for a total of 284, four under par.

Arnold Palmer, only one stroke behind Thomson at the start of the round, had an awful day, shooting a 77 and finishing behind January and Sikes at 289.

Lousy putting, as usual, did Palmer in. “I never had a day like this in my life,” he said. It started, he said, when he three-putted the third hole when it appeared he would catch Thomson. “But Thomson made par and I made bogey. And from there, it was all downhill.”

It surprised Kite that nobody made a run at him all day. There were some potential two-shot swings in his head-to-head game with Simpson but, Kite said, “None went in his favor. He couldn’t make any putts.”

Golf is really two games. One is played in the air and the other on the ground. Kite had a good “ground” game all week. In fact, he said, he has been putting well for the past two months.

But he had been having a lot of problems with his air game. After missing only four cuts in four years, he missed the first two this year at Phoenix and Los Angeles and blew another one with an embarrassing performance at the Masters. In a state of shock, he passed up the Houston tournament last week and went to Florida for some lessons.

“I’m floatin’ right now,” he said Sunday. “To have such a quick turnaround in my game was quite a surprise. I was just hoping to improve a little.”

After making some changes in his swing, he expected to miss some shots, he said. He didn’t miss many here, however, shooting over par on only 3 of the 72 holes, twice when he hit into a water hazard on the 5th hole. “The biggest change in my game,” he said, “was that I was able to hit more fairways and greens.”

To Kite, the victory wasn’t as easy as it looked. “The 64 (in the first round) put some extra pressure on me,” he said. “When you get a four-shot lead the first day, people expect you to win.”

Saturday night he thought a lot about that--and the fact that he had a three-stroke lead. He has blown as much as a four-stroke lead before (last year in the San Diego Open) in the last round.

“It’s easy to get complacent when you have a lead that big,” he said. “It is easier to come from behind and win because there is no pressure on you.” He thought about that statement for a moment, however, and then said, “I’m not saying I don’t want the lead. I’d rather have the pressure.”

He eased the pressure right away Sunday, sinking an 18-foot putt for a birdie on the first hole. After making a bogey 5 at the 5th hole, he sank an eight-foot birdie putt at No. 6 and was off and running. In the next 12 holes, he made two more birdies and 10 pars.

He made pars even when he got into trouble. On the par-5 ninth hole, for example, he drove into a terrible lie in the right round, chopped a 6-iron shot out into the left rough and then hit a 190-yard 5-iron shot into a bunker, 70 feet from the hole. He knocked the sand shot two inches from the cup and saved his par.

On the 14th hole, he hooked his tee shot into a bunker but saved another par by making an 18-foot putt. He also missed the green at No. 18 (“I was already writing my acceptance speech and lost my concentration.”) but still made a par.

Tom Kite, 35, is a slightly-built fellow at 5-8, 155 pounds. He has rusty blond hair, a red face and wears thick glasses that correct a bad case of nearsightedness. He has had a golf club in his hand since he was 6 and has been spectacularly successful since he came out of the University of Texas and was the PGA’s Rookie of the Year in 1973. In 1972, he was the NCAA co-champion with Texas teammate Ben Crenshaw.

Sunday’s victory was the eighth of his career and increased his earnings to almost $2.5 million. He has won two Vardon trophies, in 1981 and 1982, for the best stroke average on the tour. He was also the PGA’s Player of the Year in 1981 when he was also the leading money winner at $375,699 and finished in the top ten 21 times in 26 tournaments.

Thomson made less than half as much money Sunday as Kite, winning $30,000. However, he had to beat only eight other senior pros. After going bogey, bogey, birdie, birdie, bogey on the last five holes, the 55-year-old Australian said, “It’s agony. We’re far too old for this.”

Winning is not entirely in your own hands, Thomson said, adding: “Half of it depends on what you do, and the other half on what the other people do.” Sunday, the other half was no match for either Thomson or Kite.