U.S. OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP : Clearwater’s 64 Places Him One Back of Watson

There are 21 golfers within five shots of leader Tom Watson going into today’s final round of the U.S. Open--and not one of them has ever won this tournament.

There are 45 golfers within eight shots of Watson--and only one of them, Jack Nicklaus, has ever won this tournament.

So, if experience counts, who is going to beat him?

Who is going to beat Watson, who won the 1982 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach, but has not done a whole lot since?

Who is going to beat Watson, who curled in a hair-raising 15-foot birdie putt Saturday on what Lee Trevino had earlier called the “unputtable” 18th green, giving him a 71 for the day and a one-shot lead at 208, two under par?

Maybe it will be tour rookie Keith Clearwater, who is at 209 after shooting a six-under-par 64 that tied Rives McBee’s 21-year-old Olympic Club course record, and who said: “I’m only disappointed that we didn’t play 36 holes today.”

Maybe it will be Scott Simpson, who shares second place, and is so happy to be here that he said: “I was just looking forward to making the cut.”

Maybe it will even be Lennie Clements, who is all by himself at 210 but has never done better in a professional tournament than third place in the 1983 Miller High Life Quad-Cities Open.

One thing is for sure, Watson said: “Anybody who’s in contention is nervous. Some people can deal with it better than others. But it’s the U.S. Open, so you know everybody’s nervous.”

Including Watson himself?

“I’m nervous. Obviously, I’m nervous. Tomorrow I’m going to be playing maybe one of the most important rounds of my career. I know that. You know that. All we can do now is go out and play it. If we could predict it, we’d all be living the life of Riley.”

What was once a game of Celebrity Leader Board has turned into a pretty mixed golf bag. At 211, three strokes off the pace, are Seve Ballesteros, Ben Crenshaw and Bernhard Langer, three names of fame; Larry Mize, the Masters champion whose bid for the Grand Slam is very much alive; John Mahaffey, who lost the 1975 U.S. Open at Medinah in an 18-hole playoff with Lou Graham, and Jim Thorpe.

All of them are accomplished golfers, but none has won the Open.

You have to go all the way down to 214 and Nicklaus to find a former champion. A 76 Saturday put Jack back in the pack, six shots behind Watson, but anybody who can shoot a 66 in the final round probably has a chance to win this thing.

Even Greg Norman, who usually leads the major tournaments at this point, cannot be counted out, although at seven strokes off the pace, as he said, “I’ll have to do what Keith Clearwater did to get back in it.” Norman led all four of last year’s Grand Slam events after three rounds but won only the British Open.

Watson rules out nothing. “I’ve been around since 1971, and nothing surprises me any more,” he said. “Like Norman’s 63 at Turnberry last year. I’d have bet Ft. Knox on that one not happening. But it happened.”

Because some sunshine finally fell upon the Olympic Club, the greens dried out Saturday and became hard and fast, playing havoc with putts and making the scores go up. One of Clearwater’s blessings was to have gone out at 8:20 a.m., before the spike marks started dotting the greens. Watson didn’t start his round until 3 hours 20 minutes later.

The player they call “Clear” had a bogey-free round, in his best showing since winning the Colonial earlier this year with consecutive 64s in the final two rounds. Clearwater grew up in nearby Walnut Creek, a 40-minute drive away and estimated that he has played this course close to 50 times.

But after carding a 74 on the first day, Clearwater was concerned about making the cut. He squeaked in the next day at 145, making it by two shots.

Far more consistent this week has been Simpson, although he, too, said making the cut was his priority. Also a winner on the tour this year, at Greensboro, N.C., Simpson shot an even-par 70 Saturday. If the San Diego golfer was inconsistent at all in his round, it was in that he missed the first six greens, then hit the next 12 in regulation.

The course was far less kind to Tommy Nakajima of Japan, who hit so many obstacles he must have thought he was playing miniature golf. At the 17th hole, his ball landed on a spectator’s sweater, and he needed a free drop. At the 18th, his ball lodged in a tree. Attempts to retrieve it failed, so Nakajima took a penalty and finished the day with a double bogey and a score of 74, knocking Nakajima four strokes behind Watson.

“That is golf,” Nakajima said.

The poor guy has had his share of these experiences. He once took a 13 on a hole in the Masters, and a 9 in the British Open at St. Andrews. “Why do you keep reminding me of my experiences in the past?” he said, politely.

Possibly because of how he played. Even on the front nine Saturday, on the 7th hole, Nakajima said he hit a “banana ball.” What he meant was, he sliced one that curved so sharply, it went 50 yards to the right of the green and nearly on an adjacent hole. It was not Nakajima’s finest hour.

Nor was it Mark Wiebe’s. The second-round co-leader shot a 77, falling six strokes behind Watson.

Nor was it Bob Tway’s. Last year’s PGA champion shot a 79, falling out of contention.

Nor was it Russ Cochran’s. The left-hander who carded 71-69 in the first two rounds blew up to an 81, falling out of sight.

Olympic was tough this day, though not tough on everybody. Dale Douglass, the 51-year-old Seniors Tour player, still refused to act his age, and threatened to shoot his age. His 69 kept him four shots off the lead.

Ballesteros had a 68, stringing birdies at the 4th, 5th and 6th holes. Mahaffey went him one better, with a 67 that included four birdies on the back nine.

Although Crenshaw, Mize, Thorpe and Langer all were above par for the third round, they remained in the hunt. “Anybody can jump up and win it now,” Langer said. “One good round can be enough.”

Thorpe is a player who takes Watson’s “nervous” theory one better. Recalling how he led the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion after a 66 in the first round, he said: “That night, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the golf course so I could shoot 73 and let somebody else take the lead.”

Thorpe threatened to fade away Saturday, but helped himself back into the tournament after someone in the gallery attempted to help first. A spectator along the 18th fairway grabbed Thorpe’s ball and tossed it back on the fairway. He had to drop it near a cable, in the rough.

Thorpe’s caddy was not too helpful at that point, overestimating the distance to the pin. He hit a 9-iron about 140 yards, and it flew the green into the back rough. But a beautiful, precision chip, with a club face as wide open as possible, popped 10 inches into the air, bounced in the long rough, then the short rough, then trickled 30 feet until it came to rest four feet from the cup.

Thorpe followed this splendid shot with a putt that saved par, gave him a 73 and kept him in contention.

“I didn’t really feel tight, but I played like I had a lot of butterflies,” Thorpe said. “At least until that last hole. I don’t think you can do it much better than that.”

Watson, in the same threesome, was 15 feet from the hole with a birdie putt that broke at least eight feet, right to left. He sank it, for a perfect ending to a day that had begun with bogeys on three of the first four holes.

“I made a no-brainer on that last hole,” Watson said. “Jack Nicklaus and I were practicing on that green the other day, and we were knocking it six feet by the hole on a good putt, and 30 to 35 feet by on a bad putt. That’s a dangerous green.”

But, he kept the butterflies at bay and made the putt.

“It takes courage to win the U.S. Open, more courage than it takes for any other tournament,” Watson said. Why? “Because we play the toughest courses in the U.S. Open. It requires a tremendous amount of courage to tackle them. You’ve really got to gut it out.”

Somebody will today.

Somebody won’t.

Open Notes

Curtis Strange eagled the 433-yard, par-4 9th hole with a 7-iron on his way to a 69. Strange is one of 10 players bunched at 212, four shots behind Tom Watson. . . . There’s a definite Southland flavor to the leader board. Keith Clearwater was born in Long Beach, and Scott Simpson and Lennie Clements both live in San Diego. . . . The tournament leader after 45 holes at two-under, Clements bogeyed the 12th and 15th, but birdied the 16th by pitching in from 30 feet. “At 17, I hit my best drive of the day, but it landed in a divot.” He bogeyed, and settled for a 70.

Clements, 30, had never won more than $49,383 in any year on the tour until 1986, when he earned $112,642 and placed 79th on the money list. His best finish was a tie for ninth at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic... Mark Wiebe was three-under after the 6th hole, and four over by the 18th. He took a 40 on the back nine. . . . Greg Norman had three bogeys on that same nine. . . . Quietly, doggedly remaining in contention is Jumbo Ozaki, four shots off the pace. . . . The eminently quotable Mac O’Grady, also four behind, hopes not to be frustrated. “You get the taste of success, you see the filet mignon and reach for the Rothschild wine, and then you see that it’s Gallo,” he said.