Men Will Give the Women Distance but No Strokes at Monterey

When money is as stake, even if it’s only a buck or two, pro golfers would rather shank than give someone an edge. They wouldn’t give their wives a stroke a hole.

But this week, starting Thursday, some well-known PGA mercenaries will put aside their vanity and, get this, risk losing thousands of dollars by giving their female counterparts an uncommon advantage. The occasion will be the $200,000 Spalding Invitational Pro-Am, the only golf tournament anywhere that features male and female pros in head-to-head combat.

The men haven’t given away the store, however. The women will get no strokes, only distance. They will play from shorter tees on three Monterey area courses, including Pebble Beach. After all, $200,000 is at stake here.

“I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of the women win,” veteran professional Al Geiberger said.

“I like the women’s chances,” said Harold Firstman, a long-time PGA professional who founded the tournament 14 years ago and still runs it today.

Realistically, however, the women don’t have much of a chance of winning the tournament. Golf, despite all the emphasis on smoothness, timing and rhythm, is also a game of strength and stamina. To beat the men, the women will need all the advantage they can get. A few yards edge on each hole may not be enough.

However, over the years three women, Donna Caponi, Kathy Whitworth and Patty Sheehan, have come close to beating the men and, worse, taking some of their money.

Last year, in fact, Whitworth, a winner of 87 Ladies’ Professional Golf Assn. tournaments, was tied for the lead with George Archer and Peter Oosterhuis at the end of 54 holes.

In 1980, Caponi held a four-stroke lead after 36 holes, and in 1983, Sheehan was tied for second after two rounds after shooting an 8-under-par 64 on the short Del Monte course.

However, Whitworth’s sixth-place finish in 1985 was the highest for a woman in the seven years they have played in this unique event. She shot a final-round 76 on a cold, windy day at Pebble Beach. Caponi blew her lead by shooting poor rounds at both Spyglass Hill and Pebble Beach.

While Geiberger believes “someone like Patty Sheehan probably can win it,” he also said, “It’s pretty tough on the women.”

For one thing, he said, they can’t seem to handle the last-day pressure, especially if they are leading, or the Pebble Beach course, which has intimidated the world’s best male professionals.

The women get their biggest break in distance at the famous Monterey Peninsula course, but Geiberger said, “You almost can’t give them enough yardage at Pebble. They mow a square out in the fairway on some holes to give them a shorter tee.”

When Firstman first brought women into his tournament, he said he knew he must “equalize the strength factor. We know women can’t compete against men; they don’t have the strength. It would be absurd to make them hit from the same tee.”

So, getting advice from both men and women pros, Firstman adjusted the distances on each hole. “The first year was a guess,” Geiberger said. Now, Firstman said, “After adjusting the tees each year, we think we have reached a fair distance.”

Geiberger, a former winner of the tournament, agrees. “I think we have a pretty good balance,” he said. “The gals feel they have a chance, and the men don’t think they are at a disadvantage.”

The decision to give women shorter tees has not been unanimous.

“Occasionally, a male pro has been critical,” Firstman said. “They think the women should play from the same tees. If they did, it would be impossible for them to compete, of course.”

Geiberger has heard only a few complaints about the women’s tees but said: “Some guys will say, ‘Hey, look at that tee up there.’ But there’s not too much grumbling.”

There is no doubt the women need an edge, especially at Pebble Beach, where the wind often blows and the greens are small and well-bunkered. On a level fairway of average firmness, unaided by wind, male pros will drive the ball between 250 and 255 yards off the tee. The longest-hitting women average about 215 or 220.

What Firstman has tried to do, he said, is “to equalize it so the men and women will hit the same club into the green.”

Last-day pressure and Pebble Beach aside, the women have other weaknesses to overcome, in Geiberger’s view. For one thing, he said, they don’t hit the ball as high as men. To get more distance, they hit a lower shot. It’s almost a hook, in fact. “The ones who can hit it higher do better,” he said.

Hooks trouble a male more than a woman, however. “A hook doesn’t hurt women as much because they are not as strong,” Geiberger said. “Some men, say Andy Bean, can’t keep a hook in the ballpark.”

The difference in strength also is evident in the way women hit shots from bunkers. “They are not as good out of traps because they are not as strong,” Geiberger said.

Although strength is not a factor on greens, most male pros don’t give women high marks as putters, either, Geiberger said. However, he thinks Sheehan is an exception. “I’d rather have her putting for me any day,” he said. “She is better than I am. She has a good stroke and she is a good competitor.”

On short shots into the green, it would seem that men would not have much of an advantage over the highly skilled women pros, but Geiberger says that’s not the case. “You’d think the women would be as good in close but they aren’t,” he said. “I don’t know why.”

Making up the record field of nine women will be Sheehan, Jan Stephenson, Alice Miller, Jane Blalock, Beth Daniel, Muffin Spencer-Devlin, Val Skinner, Julie Inkster and Sally Little.

The men in the field are defending champion Oosterhuis, Geiberger, Greg Norman, Johnny Miller, George Burns, Bobby Clampett, U. S. Open champion Andy North and John Mahaffey.

Players making the cut after 54 holes will play Pebble Beach for the second time in the final round on Sunday. The other two rounds this year will be played at Del Monte in Monterey and the Carmel Valley Country Club.

The women will not be paired with the men until the final round. The Spalding format is similar to that of the Bob Hope tournament. Each pro will play the first three rounds with a different set of three amateurs.