A Working-Man’s Pro Golfer : Russell Toils on Golden State Tour, Waiting for PGA Payday

Arnold Palmer can hardly venture out without autograph-seeking fans stopping in their tracks. There are legions of fans who stop just as abruptly when Jack Nicklaus passes.

And so it is, too, with fellow professional golfer Dave Russell of England and Canoga Park. Why, just last October a woman came to a sudden halt when she saw Russell and ended up, moments later, with his autograph.

There was one problem, however. The autograph was on a police accident report.

“I drive 100 miles an hour in England and nothing happens to me,” Russell said. “But I putt along at 55 miles an hour here and get in a big slam up.”

The slam up on the Ventura Freeway caused severe back injuries to the 28-year-old Russell, and took him away from practice for about five months. His golf game suffered, but the veteran of the European Tour is now back in the swing of things. Russell will be one of the favorites in the 36-hole Golden State Tour spring championship to be played today and Friday at the Valencia Golf Club.

The 86-player event, the first in a series of 11 two-day tournaments organized by former Long Beach Press-Telegram sportswriter Doug Ives, offers a modest purse of slightly less than $25,000. The winner gets about $3,000.

The pros who pay the $100 entry fee to join the series know very well that $3,000 could be a dinner tab for Palmer and Nicklaus. Most are fringe players, solid pros who would beat the ugly golf pants off most amateurs, but who are not quite good enough to compete regularly on the PGA Tour.

But many of the younger players, like Russell and Wayne Case of Thousand Oaks, play the Golden State Tour to pick up spending money while awaiting their shot at the PGA. Another member of the Golden State Tour, Duffy Waldorf of Tarzana, will return from a successful few months on the Asian Tour and play in the final five Golden State events.

Russell, who settled in Canoga Park after marrying a U.S. citizen, works part time for a loan agency in Calabasas. Russell said he plans to make real estate a career when he hangs up his spiked shoes.

“If you play really well on this tour, you can make a living at it,” Russell said. “There is money to be made each week with Golden State. But I couldn’t live off it.”

What he does live off is the European Tour, where he has had some brushes with fame. He won last year’s Ryder Classic in London and, in last year’s British Open, Russell began the final round of the prestigious tournament among the top 15. After the first nine holes on the final day, he had moved up among the top 10.

He then proceeded to fall apart faster than a $28 wedding gown, playing the final nine holes at five over par and finishing in 25th place.

“When I realized I was in the top 10 in the British Open, I got nervous,” Russell admitted. “I’ll always remember those last nine holes, all right.”

Ten days later, he was back in California, where he has lived six months in each of the last three years. That’s when he met the woman on the Ventura Freeway.

“I suffered nerve damage, ligament damage and tendon damage to my back,” he said. “I couldn’t play any golf at all for more than four months. But I’ve played the last three weeks, and now I’m feeling much better.”

He has already won a one-day, 18-hole event in the Golden State Tour, and hopes to use this week’s match at Valencia to prepare himself for the start of the European Tour. Russell said he will return to England at the first of April to get ready for the French Open, which starts April 14.

Russell earned his exempt status in Europe by finishing 70th on the money list last year. The top 125 players receive exemptions for the following year.

But even though Russell enjoys the European Tour, his sights are set on bigger things.

“I’m going to try the American PGA qualifying school this year, in October I think,” Russell said. “I look at the big American tournaments all the time, but the PGA is such a closed shop, that you can’t play in them. The PGA is so big, that you can’t get into their tournaments. I tried to qualify for the Los Angeles Open and I shot a 69, but that didn’t even get me a look in.

“But I’ll be out there on the American tour one day, I’m sure.”

Meanwhile, he’s hoping for a win in this week’s tournament on the Golden State Tour. Then he plans to get out of town, out of the country and back to his native England before anyone else can play freeway demolition derby with his car.

“I should have known an accident might happen,” he said. “All you folks insist on driving on the wrong side of the road.”