Mathis Senior Golf Tournament : Douglass Loses Cool but Stays Hot With 67

The weather cooled off for the first round of the $250,000 Johnny Mathis Senior golf tournament Friday at MountainGate Country Club, but not Dale Douglass.

Despite a 25-degree L.A. temperature drop from Thursday’s 90, the hot-shooting “baby” of the Senior PGA Tour posted a five-under-par 67 to lead by one stroke over Mike Souchak and Ben Smith. It was the seventh consecutive tour round in which Douglass has led or been tied for the lead.

Defending champion Peter Thomson and fellow Australian Bruce Crampton were two shots off the lead after firing 69s early in the day. A group of six at 70 included John Brodie, like Souchak a former football player, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Lee Elder.

Douglass, a late starter, had another phenomenal beginning, this time on a hilly mountain course he had never even seen before Wednesday. He started his round with four 3s, then had a four on the par-five fifth hole to go three under par.

He bogeyed the ninth when he missed a four-foot putt to finish with a four-under-par 32. He faltered on the last six holes or he would be the runaway leader.

After hitting a 7-iron within 18 inches of the cup on the 164-yard 12th and making the putt, he was six under and rolling. But, he missed makeable birdie putts on the next two holes, three-putted for a bogey on No. 15 and drove far to the right on the 470-yard, par-five 16th, losing a chance to go for the green on his second shot. He parred because he missed a seven-footer. In the middle of his backswing on the 17th, a long par-three, a beeper belonging to a cameraman standing beside the tee went off just as Douglass started his backswing.

The shot went into a trap left of the green. Usually unruffled, Douglass admonished the cameraman but regained his composure and parred out of the sand.

“I thought it would be another warm day, so I started out in my shirt sleeves,” said Douglass, becoming a regular in the interview room. “By the finish, I was wearing two sweaters, and I needed both of them. My hands were cold.

“The cold hands affected my drive on 16 and also caused me to lose the feel on my putts. But once again I am playing well. I’m really enjoying it.”

Asked if he was angry at the cameraman, Douglass said with a smile: “You know I never get angry.”

Douglass, in just his eighth round on the over-50 tour after becoming eligible on March 5, had to shoot a 67 or under just to lower his average. He shot a 70 on the second round of the Vintage last week, and that is the only time he has been out of the 60s.

Now that he is leading this 54-hole tournament, after losing a playoff in his first tournament as a senior and winning last week at Vintage, the thought occurred that Douglass might want another crack at the regular PGA Tour.

“I have no macho problem,” he said. “I’m going to continue to play here with my friends. There is no sense beating my brains out going up against the best golfers in the world. The guys out here were the best in the world, and this is where I belong.

“When I played at Hawaii in my last tournament on the regular tour, I was the oldest player. When I played at Sun City (Ariz.) in my first tournament on the Senior Tour, I was the youngest.”

Souchak, soon-to-be 59, said he was playing a third tournament in a row for the first time in 20 years. He enjoyed the weather, which was more suited to football. It was almost dark by the time he finished, but he put together three birdies in a row to pull even with Douglass after 17 holes. He three-putted the 18th to drop into a tie for second with Smith.

“I’ve played so well lately,” Souchak said, “that I decided to play three in a row. I had one bad round at Sun City, but played well at the Vintage (13th).

“But I just do this for the fun of it. Even if I win here, I’ll go back to work at my 9-to-5 job. We own a golf cart company in Clearwater, Fla. I’m having too good a time to change the way I’m doing it. I just play in a few tournaments to be with my friends. The rest of the time I’m a working man.”

Smith is a surprising success on the Senior Tour. Although he never competed on the Regular Tour and didn’t turn pro until he was 48, he won $78,303 in 1985, his first full year on the tour.

“I’m a flatlander,” he said. “I have trouble reading greens near mountains. The way I putted I thought I shot two over par instead of four under. It was so cold near the end I thought I was playing in the Anchorage Open.

“I am glad the Senior Tour was here for me to join. I started preparing for it two years ago when I was 49.”

Although it was a dark damp day for the final part of the pro-am and the start of pro competition, darkness halted only one golfer. Al Chandler will play his final hole in the morning before the start of the second round.