L.A. Open Doesn’t Have a Spot for Ballesteros

Spain’s Seve Ballesteros, considered one of the world’s two best players, wants to enter next month’s Los Angeles Open.

But Kevin McCloskey, chairman of the tournament at Riviera Country Club Feb. 19-22, said Friday that the L.A. Open had used all four of its available invitations before he heard from Ballesteros’ agent.

That not only has frustrated McCloskey but also Tom Morgan, chairman of the Shearson Lehman Brothers Andy Williams Open in San Diego. That tournament is scheduled for the week before the L.A. Open at Torrey Pines Golf Club.

Morgan has two of his four invitations available, but said that Ballesteros’ agent told him the two-time Masters champion will play in San Diego only if he also can play in Los Angeles.

“Everybody is trying to pull on the same end of the rope,” McCloskey said. “But at this point, it doesn’t look promising.”

Ballesteros’ presence would be particularly beneficial to the L.A. Open, which in recent years has had difficulty attracting many of the PGA tour’s best-known players because of its relatively low purse.

Through a sponsorship agreement with Nissan, the L.A. Open’s $600,000 purse this year is competitive with most tournaments, but, as of this week, only two of the top 10 money winners from last year, Bob Tway and Ben Crenshaw, had committed to play.

“If we got Seve, it would be spectacular,” McCloskey said. “He might be the No. 1 attraction in the world in golf. He’s certainly one of the world’s two or three best players.”

Jack Nicklaus said this week that Australian Greg Norman and Ballesteros are “head and heels” above all of the other players but that Norman is the best because he plays more often on the U.S. tour than Ballesteros.

Ballesteros played the U.S. tour until last year, when he was suspended because he had not played 15 tournaments in 1985. That’s the minimum number a player can enter and retain his tour card.

Even though he hasn’t rejoined the tour, Ballesteros is eligible to play nine tournaments in the United States this year. That includes five regular tournaments as well as the Masters, U.S. Open, PGA and World Series of Golf.

But to enter a regular tournament, he must receive an unrestricted exemption from the sponsor. Both the L.A. Open and the Andy Williams tournaments had four unrestricted exemptions, but McCloskey said the L.A. Open’s already are committed to two Japanese professionals and two amateurs.

PGA official Tom Place said Friday he had heard that Ballesteros plans to play two tournaments in Florida in preparation for the Masters April 9-12.

Morgan said Ballesteros would first like to play the two West Coast tournaments.

“But he doesn’t want to come to San Diego and then be idle for a week before going to Florida,” Morgan said. “That’s why he won’t do San Diego unless he also does Los Angeles.”

McCloskey said Ballesteros chose the L.A. Open because he wants to play at Riviera.

“He feels that would be a real challenge for him,” McCloskey said.

But McCloskey said he isn’t optimistic.

“It’s a little disappointing that we don’t have any exemptions left, but we can’t wave a magic wand and get an extra one,” he said.

“All I can say is that if there’s any way we can get him in, we will.”