Chen Leads Board of Non-Winners Into Final Round

The proud Los Angeles Open was once the province of Hogan, Snead and Mangrum, and later of Palmer, Watson, Miller and Wadkins. Its leader board once read like golf’s Hall of Fame.

For the final round of its 61st renewal today, the L.A. Open brings you T.C. Chen, Bobby Wadkins, Pat McGowan, Rick Dalpos and Sam Randolph.

None of them has won a PGA tournament.

Two other leaders, Rick Fehr and Don Pooley, have each won one. In both instances, it was the B. C. Open.

If it weren’t for Rob Sullivan, the UCLA golfer who gave up his spot in the tournament to Spain’s Seve Ballesteros, this would be Quad Cities West.

Eight of last year’s leading money winners aren’t here. Five of this year’s top money winners didn’t come, and the 36-hole cut eliminated No. 1 Corey Pavin.

The sponsoring Los Angeles Junior Chamber of Commerce, ostensibly to improve its stature, courted a Japanese car manufacturer to help foot the bills. It might have been better if they had courted some familiar players.

Where are Greg Norman, Andy Bean and Tom Kite? Where are Ray Floyd, Bernhard Langer and Fuzzy Zoeller?

Ben Crenshaw, who with Danny Edwards, Calvin Peete and Ballesteros gives the 54-hole leader board some respectability, couldn’t explain the dearth of name players.

“I’ll be damned if I know why they’re not here,” Crenshaw said. “I wouldn’t dream of missing Riviera. My criteria for playing tournaments is the caliber of golf course, and there’s none better than Riviera.”

Chen, a slender Taiwanese who lives about 50 miles east of Riviera in Walnut, shot a 67 to take a one-stroke lead over Edwards with a nine-under-par 204 after three rounds over the par-71 Riviera course. Chen’s margin came from a hole-in-one he made on the 171-yard sixth hole. Edwards, who trailed Chen by five shots at the halfway point Saturday, rallied with three birdies for a 68.

Crenshaw (66) and Bobby Wadkins (68) are at 206. Lanny Wadkins, the family’s big winner, dropped five shots back of his younger brother after struggling to a 73.

Fehr, who had a 70, is alone at 207, followed at 208 by McGowan, whose 65 was the day’s low round, Peete (67), Pooley (69) and Ballesteros (69).

Randolph, the 1985 United States Amateur champion from Santa Barbara, is five strokes off Chen’s pace after shooting a 70. With the former college player of the year from USC at 209 are Hammond (67), winner of last year’s Bob Hope tournament, and Dalpos (67), a former Purdue player who has won and lost his PGA playing card five times without finishing better than 15th in any tournament.

Bill Sander, Friday’s 36-hole leader, had a disastrous eight-over-par 43 on the back nine to drop from contention in what he hoped would be his first tour win. Sander, who won the 1975 U.S. Amateur at Bel-Air Country Club, finished with a 79, dropping from first to a tie for 49th.

Chen had one remarkable three-hole stretch where he played four-under-par golf without hitting his ball from the green. On No. 5, a 430-yard par 4, he chipped in for a birdie from 25 feet.

Chen’s next shot was the ace, the first of his career in a tournament. He used a 6-iron.

“I wanted to hit a 5-iron, but my caddy told me to hit a 6,” Chen said. “I have a good caddy.”

Chen said he did not see the ball go into the cup because the hole was cut behind a bunker.

“I knew I hit it close, but I didn’t know it went in until I heard the crowd yelling,” Chen said.

The sixth hole has a trap in the middle of the green.

Next came No. 7, a 407-yard par 4, where Chen putted from the fringe of the green, about 45 feet, into the cup.

The streak was reminiscent of Chen’s play in the 1985 U.S. Open at Oakland Hills, near Detroit, when he parlayed a double-eagle into a seemingly insurmountable lead before losing to Andy North.

Chen’s fortunes fell at Oakland Hills when he double-hit a chip shot from deep grass and took a quadruple-bogey 8 on the fifth hole.

“Usually when a player finishes second in a tournament like the Open, it should make him happy,” Chen said, “but it bothered me so much that I missed the next three cuts in a row. It took me a long time to get over what happened on the fifth hole.”

Edwards, one of Chen’s playing partners, bogeyed No. 6, and over the three-hole stretch of 5-6-7 lost five strokes to Chen.

The gap between the two narrowed on the back nine when Edwards made three birdies and Chen bogeyed the 16th and 18th holes.

“I didn’t drive the ball well the last few holes,” Chen said. “I couldn’t keep my concentration.”

Chen has won seven tournaments in Asia, but the closest he has come to winning on the U.S. tour came in the 1983 Kemper Open when he lost a playoff to Fred Couples.

“I can’t tell what will happen tomorrow,” Chen said. “I had a chance to win both the Kemper and U.S. Open, but I didn’t. All I can do just play my own game, but I feel pretty strong.”

Crenshaw called his 66 “the best round I’ve ever played at Riviera, but I’ve never done very well here.”

Gentle Ben, who came out of a year-long slump to win two tournaments last year, had five birdies without a bogey.

“Any time you play Riviera without a bogey, you have to be very happy,” Crenshaw said. “The greens were very, very smooth and the conditions, especially after Friday’s wind, were excellent.”

As an example, Crenshaw cited No. 18, the 454-yard, two-tiered monster that is one of golf’s most difficult finishing holes.

“Today I used a driver and a 7-iron on No. 18,” he said. “On the first day, I used a driver and a 3-wood.”

Most golfers, Chen and Edwards included, claim they pay little or no attention to the leader board, but Crenshaw said he watches it closely.

“When you see the scores going downward, you take a few more chances to get back in there. You have to be aggressive in order to catch the leaders, but you have to temper your thinking at Riviera. It’s not the type course that you can take many liberties with.”

Five of the first 12 players going into today’s final 18 holes have never won, and three have won only once, but with that many players within five shots of the lead, standing near a leader board may be the place to be today.