Caldwell, Out of Nowhere, Leads on 67

Even when he wasn’t known for much of anything else, sexy Rexy Caldwell was recognized as one of professional golf’s free spirits. When it came to having fun, he was always the leader in the clubhouse.

Then the music stopped. He took a big fall in the PGA money standings in 1985 and hit bottom last year, losing his PGA Tour card and the automatic invitation to tournaments that goes with it.

“I’m a nobody out here now,” he said Thursday.

If that’s the case, nobody’s leading after the first round of the AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Caldwell, who only four years ago was the tour’s sixth-leading money winner, shot a five-under-par 67 at the Pebble Beach Golf Links Thursday for a one-stroke lead over Lanny Wadkins, Sandy Lyle, Tom Byrum and John Adams.

Eleven other players were tied at 69 as the relatively calm weather conditions tamed the tournament’s three courses, Pebble Beach, Cypress Point and Spyglass Hill.

Even the usually cantankerous Spyglass allowed the pros to pet it, yielding more par or better scores than Pebble Beach.

The 180 professionals and their amateur partners play each of the courses during the first three rounds before the field is cut to 60 professionals and the leading 25 pro-amateur teams for Sunday’s final round at Pebble Beach.

“The weather is not quite ideal, but it’s certainly much better than it can be,” said Roger Maltbie, who played in college at San Jose State and lives nearby in Los Gatos. He shot a first-round 69 at Pebble Beach.

“I used to come down here with my college friends during storms and see who could break 90.”

Since the weather for this tournament, known as Crosby weather, is traditionally bad, no one is too confident it will hold. Rain was forecast for Thursday night.

Caldwell, a Lompoc native, said he was sitting by the fireplace at his Abilene, Tex., home a few weeks ago when his wife, Jana, pushed him out the door toward the driving range, even though it was cold and windy.

“She said, ‘Get out there. It’s just like Pebble Beach,’ ” Caldwell said.

Caldwell, 36, knows all about storms because he’s had to weather a few. After struggling for eight years on the tour, more some years than others, he broke through in 1983 when he won $284,434. Only five players earned more.

At this time four years ago, no one was playing consistently better than Caldwell, who went to Cal State Northridge when it was known as San Fernando Valley State.

He lost in playoffs at the Tournament of Champions and the Bob Hope Chrysler tournament, then finished second in this tournament. Later that year, he won his first tournament, the LaJet Classic in Abilene. So far, it’s also his last victory.

Ironically, it was after that year that Caldwell found the fairway and lost his game.

“I finally quit driving the ball sideways after 1984,” Caldwell said. “I hit only 39% of the fairways in ’84.

“My grip got so strong, playing out of the rough all the time, that when I started hitting the ball into the fairway, my left hand was so strong I couldn’t hit the ball straight.”

He still won $126,400 in 1984, but his earnings dropped to $58,689 in 1985 and $39,674 last year. There were 148 players who earned more.

Since only the top 125 gain automatic exemptions for the following year’s tournaments, Caldwell went to the qualifying school last December in an attempt to get another tour card that would enable him to play this year. He missed by two shots.

He’s playing here only because AT&T; invited him, which none of the other West Coast tournaments this year have done, even though he always entered them when he had his card.

“I don’t have any animosity,” he said. “If I had played better, I wouldn’t need invitations. This is the first year I haven’t been able to pick and choose. It’s a difficult deal for me.”

If he wins here, he will be exempt not only for the rest of this year but also for the next two years.

“That would take care of a lot of bad stuff,” he said. “My cash flow has gone way down the last two years. I had to get a sponsor this year, which I haven’t done in eight years. That’s the way things are.

“But it’s probably a blessing in disguise because now I’ve got time to work on my game.

“It got to the point where it was absolutely no fun to play. If I had had a two-year exemption from the year before, I wouldn’t have played last year. It was my worst year ever in 20 years of golf. I needed to have some time at the driving range.”

He was at the Pebble Beach driving range Wednesday, when he got a tip from a free lance photographer, Chuck Brenkus of Los Angeles, that Caldwell said enabled him to shoot 67.

“He said that I used to have my hands down really low,” Caldwell said. “So I moved them down, and it worked.”

Brenkus, who calls his business Golfography News, said he learned that from watching his close friend, Mac O’Grady.

“I remember that Rex used to hold his hands exactly the same way Mac does,” said Brenkus, 68, who was a photographer for Howard Hughes for 12 years in Culver City.

“Mac says that if you don’t want to hit the ball left, you better hold your hands down. Rex had his hands about six inches too high.

“When I told him, he said, ‘With all these pros around, why didn’t somebody else tell me?’ I just laughed.

“These guys aren’t going to tell him. He’ll take money out of their pockets.”

Caldwell, who has a mustache and wavy blond hair, was one of the tour’s more popular players because of his relaxed approach to the game even when he wasn’t playing well. So he seemed particularly loose Thursday while playing a round with five birdies and no bogeys.

Since Willie Nelson was unable to attend as one of the celebrities, Caldwell was the only player wearing blue jeans. Maybe he wasn’t all dressed up, but, for at least once this year, he had somewhere to go.