Keeping Things Light : Golfers Put the Emphasis on Fun as Tway Wins 9-Hole Shoot-out at Torrey Pines

It was golf with a light touch Tuesday as 10 of the top tour pros engaged in a $10,000 shoot-out at Torrey Pines.

The shoot-out, a nine-hole format with the high scorer eliminated on each hole, served as a prelude to the Shearson Lehman Brothers Andy Williams Open. There will be a Pro-Am today, with the first round of the tournament Thursday.

Defending champion Bob Tway earned $3,000, defeating Andy Bean on a final hole “putt-off.”

Tway, the tour’s second-leading money winner last year with $652,780, made $81,000 as the 1986 San Diego champion and will be shooting for the $90,000 first prize this week.

“Can I trade this for the tournament?” he said, moments after beating Bean as the fog rolled in late Tuesday afternoon.

Tway’s chips were considerably better than his quips.

On an afternoon devoted mostly to one-liners and relaxed banter, with a little serious golf sprinkled in, Tway made no effort to compete with shoot-out emcee Gary McCord, other players or members of the gallery estimated at 2,500.

“It’s a little something extra for the spectators,” Bean said, adding that a recent shoot-out at Phoenix featuring Fuzzy Zoeller had even more “mouth” than Tuesday’s gab session.

Perhaps. But no one who was listening at Torrey Pines will ever have quite the same view of stuffier official tournament proceedings.

As the field, composed of Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Dan Pohl, Craig Stadler, Doug Tewell, Hal Sutton, Scott Simpson, Ray Floyd, Bean and Tway prepared to tee off, McCord began getting the crowd warmed up.

“They’ll all be trying to get on each other’s nerves,” McCord announced on the first hole.

“They all want to get eliminated as close to the clubhouse as they can so they won’t have so far to walk.”

Stadler drew a zinger as he stepped to the tee in a green shirt and green plaid slacks.

“And here’s Craig trying to make a fashion statement,” McCord said.

A hole later, as Floyd let out a grunt on his backswing, McCord said, “Ray is serious . Is that John McEnroe up there?”

Stadler, less than overwhelmed by tension, carried one of his sons on his shoulders as he marched down the fairway . . . just the way you see it at Augusta National.

When Bean left a putt about two feet short, McCord asked other players if he would have to hole out. The verdict came back negative, leading McCord to observe, “See Andy, you gotta beg and grovel sometimes out here.”

A Kite drive into the rough prompted McCord to pull out a shrill whistle that sounded like a party favor. Kite smiled in appreciation.

Simpson was the first to be eliminated, followed by Pohl, Tewell, Watson, Sutton and Kite.

The humor began to thin out along with the survivors, but the atmosphere never got too up-tight.

“I can’t see the fairway anymore,” Bean said as he and Tway got ready to drive through the fog on the final hole, No. 18.

Actually, the visibility was more than adequate to permit each player a birdie, which necessitated a “chip-off.”

McCord put it to the gallery to position the players.

“The people’s choice is over the water,” he said, referring to the hazard guarding the hole. “We have some real masochists here.”

Tway and Bean matched shots on the 90-yard chip-off, bringing about a semi-dramatic putt-off from 60 feet. Bean was about six feet short, enabling Tway to win when his ball stopped about 18 inches from the cup.

“I got a date at 5:30,” McCord said for the umpteenth time as the players obliged him by bringing the shoot-out to a finish.

Tway, accepting his $3,000 check, slapped Bean’s shoulder and said, “Andy doesn’t need this, but I do.”