Brodie Chips Away at New Career as a Senior Golfer

The broad shoulders and firm body telegraph to even the most undiscerning observer that this man hunched over a golf ball is a natural athlete.

The silver-gray hair, dark brown complexion, easy smile, smooth manner and even-smoother swing round out the picture. This is a man who spends a lot of time outdoors, a lot of time with a golf club in his hands, probably an early retiree with plenty of glory days behind him and plenty of carefree days ahead.

Well you’re half right, Sherlock. John Brodie has had enough glory days to satisfy a foursome.

First, it was football. He was an All-American quarterback at Stanford, leading the NCAA in total offense and passing in 1956.

He moved into the National Football League as a first-round draft choice of the San Francisco 49ers in 1957 and lasted 17 years. In four different seasons he went over the 2,500-yard mark in passing yardage--in the days when the rules made that a lot harder to accomplish. He finished his career with 31,548 yards passing and 214 touchdown passes, including 30 in 1965. In 1970, he was NFL Player of the Year.

His next leap was along a well-traveled route. He became a broadcaster, part of what Howard Cosell derisively calls the “jockocracy,” spending 11 years in the broadcast booth for NBC, where he was a football analyst and golf commentator. He covered Super Bowl XIII for NBC-TV and Super Bowls IX and XI for NBC radio. He was the network’s Orange Bowl commentator for six years.

As for the carefree days ahead, however, forget it. Last year, with the prospect for a new contract that could have brought him perhaps $500,000 a year from NBC, with the chance to kick back and enjoy his life, his wife and his five kids, he threw his hat back into the competitive ring.

Or rather, his clubs.

John Brodie, at age 50, became a rookie once again in yet another endeavor. He joined the Senior PGA Tour, attempting to make a living once again as a competitor.

Why? He smiles that easy smile and says, “I like to compete. Whether you’re playing for money or for fun, it’s still a golf ball. Right now, this is where I want to be.”

He has quickly discovered, though, that getting a football past fast-moving defenders can be easier than getting a golf ball past stationary sand traps.

He doesn’t come to this sport sans credentials. He competed on the professional golf tour in 1959 and 1960, during the NFL’s offseason. His top finish was in the 1960 Kansas City Invitational, where he wound up 16th. His total PGA career earnings: $426.39.

“I finally had to make a choice between golf and football,” he says. “I think I made the right one.”

But more than two decades later, he found himself with another choice when the PGA started the senior tour for golfers too old to compete with the young lions, but too young to be put out to pasture.

Again, Brodie had a choice--between broadcasting and golf. “This seemed to be what I wanted to do,” he says. Brodie’s NBC contract was up and, according to a network official, he was asking too much for a new one.

So he turned in his microphone, pulled out his driver and decided to find out if he had any glory days left in him.

Not so far.

When he tees up this morning in the Johnny Mathis Seniors tournament at the MountainGate Country Club, it will be his ninth appearance on the tour. The highest he has finished thus far is fourth. If he was in it strictly for the money, he’d be in trouble. He has won a total of $11,645.

“His putting is his major concern,” says a fellow member of the senior tour. “He’s driving well. He worries too much about putting. It’s not that he can’t do it, but he’s thinking about it too much.”

Ask Brodie about his game and whether he’s employing anyone’s help to improve it and he becomes defensive. “I’m working on my own,” he says. “I just play.” End of subject.

Had Brodie been one of the top four finishers in a qualifying school held at Ft. Pierce, Fla., in December, he would have gotten a tour card that would have gotten him on the circuit. There are now 31 senior events with a total of $7.5 million in prize money. Brodie missed getting his card by one shot. So now he’s at the mercy of sponsors, who can grant exemptions which allow non-qualifiers to play. So far, Brodie has received exemptions for 12 of this year’s tournaments.

He shrugs at the obstacles he’s faced thus far. At least nobody is trying to take his head off before he can get rid of the ball.

“I’ve been playing this game a lot for 35 years,” he says of golf. “I enjoy the hell out of it, so I’m going to play it.”

As he finished the pro-am round of the Mathis tournament Thursday, Brodie found himself faced with a long putt. He missed. On his next shot, however, the ball rolled smoothly into the cup.

“Touchdown, John,” a spectator yelled from the gallery.

Brodie smiled. He hadn’t heard that in a long time.

Notes

An official of the Seniors PGA Tour, who didn’t want his name used, said Thursday that next year’s Johnny Mathis Seniors tournanament will be played at Wood Ranch golf course in Simi Valley.

Wood Ranch directors, who declined to comment on the report, invited Mathis and nearly a dozen PGA seniors to the course for a round of golf Tuesday before the start of this year’s tournament, being played at MountainGate Country Club. Singer Johnny Mathis and the seniors praised Wood Ranch afterward, but no one would say if Tuesday’s outing was an audition for the course.

The first round of the $250,000 tournament begins today and concludes Sunday. The top 10 players from the 1985 tour, including No. 1 money-winner Peter Thompson, are competing.

The Wood Ranch course is rated the third most challenging among Los Angeles-area courses by the Southern California Golf Assn.