Golf / Scott Howard-Cooper : New Houston Coach Fergus Doesn’t Miss Rigors of Being a Touring Pro

The end of his true playing life--but more important, the end of the constant travel and practice--occurred for Keith Fergus in Dallas in May.

Fergus, a million-dollar winner on the PGA Tour and 1983 champion of the Bob Hope Desert Classic, shot 78-66 and became one of the happiest men to miss a cut.

“I’ll always remember that 66,” he said the other day. “That was a good one to quit on.”

Fergus had been saying all along that he would spend 10 or 11 years on the tour, then leave the grind behind. That’s exactly what happened. All the time away from his wife and two children, all the discipline of training--he needs that now the way he used to need a triple bogey.

So he retired. For a while, at least.

Coincidentally, so did Dave Williams, though his retirement is much more definite. He spent 36 years as golf coach at the University of Houston, Fergus’ alma mater. In that time, his teams won 16 National Collegiate Athletic Assn. titles and produced, besides Fergus, such tour players as Fuzzy Zoeller, Fred Couples, Bill Rogers, Bruce Lietzke and Ed Fiori.

Friends encouraged Fergus, living in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, to go for the job, even though he had never coached anything beyond Little League baseball.

What he did have was a knowledge of the game, an understanding of what the college players are aiming for and, of course, some new-found free time.

The Cougars, who finished 10th at the 1987 NCAA tournament earlier this month at Columbus, Ohio, and have lost only one player to graduation, agreed. A couple of weeks after Williams announced his retirement, the student took over for the teacher.

Maybe not for 36 years, but things have been going pretty well for the first month, and that’s an enthusiastic comeback from golfing burnout in itself.

“I’m sure I’ll play some in the future,” said Fergus, who, according to Golf World magazine, will earn $38,000 in this new tour of duty. “But right now, I’m enjoying not playing. For the first time since I was 8 years old, I don’t have to worry about practicing.”

Now all he has to worry about is others practicing.

Telling it like it is.

“If I didn’t need the money, my rear wouldn’t be out here,” Dave Hill, a member of the PGA Seniors Tour, told a United Press International reporter recently. “My golf clubs would be in my barn back home, and that’s where they would stay until somebody bought the property or I was dead.”

Such remarks should come as no surprise. It was Hill, after all, who lost the 1970 U.S. Open to Tony Jacklin and then suggested that building the host Hazeltine Golf Club near Minneapolis had ruined a good piece of farmland.

Criticism was something Hill became very good at while on the PGA circuit, especially toward himself, despite winning 13 tournaments and $1.1 million.

“I just don’t have the confidence I should,” he said. “I hit the ball good on the practice tee and then I get on the first tee and start having all sorts of negative thoughts. I see the trees and I see the water. I keep having those 25-30 foot putts, and I’m not a great lag putter. And those little putts scare me to death.”

But Hill, who finished 29th, 13th and 5th in his first three events with the seniors, still has his supporters.

“Dave Hill will win two tournaments before this year is over and he will win a lot more next year,” said Chi Chi Rodriguez, the current money leader. “He knows how to win. If he could beat us 25 years ago, he can beat us now.”

Golf Notes Four members of the Southern California Junior Golfers Assn. were awarded $1,250 college scholarships June 1 at an awards dinner after the annual Bill Bryant Memorial tournament: Bryan Cannon of Foothill High School in Santa Ana, who is going to Duke; Kim D’Arcy of Dana Hills, going to UC Davis; Lee J. Chester of Granada Hills Kennedy, going to Cal State Northridge; and Deron Johnson of Riverside Poly, going to Stanford. . . . The Skins Game will return to PGA West in La Quinta Nov. 27-29. . . . The eighth annual Amy Alcott tournament benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society will be played Sept. 21 at La Canada Flintridge CC. The scramble event, with a $500 entry fee, is open to men and women. A member of the LPGA tour will play with each foursome. Information: (818) 247-1175.

The first Eric Dickerson “Just Say No To Drugs” celebrity tournament will be played Saturday at Encino GC. Proceeds will benefit Eric Dickerson’s Rangers club for youths 7-12 at L.A. City Recreation and Parks centers throughout the city. Information: (213) 485-4871 or (818) 989-8616. . . . The 54-hole Greater Palm Springs Open will be held July 16-18 at Palm Valley CC in Palm Desert. The pro-am is set for July 15. . . . Cherry Hills CC in Englewood, Colo., has been selected as the site for the 1990 U.S. Amateur, the oldest golf tournament in the country. The 1987 event will be held in August at Jupiter, Fla.

The newly renovated Carmel Highland CC will hold a local qualifying tournament for the Oldsmobile Scramble, one of the world’s largest competitions with 65,000 participants nationwide, July 19. Sanctioned by the PGA, the tournament has four-member teams, with the winning group from Carmel advancing to sectional play at Singing Hills in El Cajon. The national final is scheduled Oct. 9-12 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Information and registration: (619) 279-0700 or (619) 672-2200. . . . The ninth California amateur tournament for women 55 and over will be held Aug. 17-19 at Del Monte GC in Monterey.

The 20th annual Optimist Junior World Championships, which drew 740 golfers from 20 countries last year, will be held July 14-17 on five courses in the San Diego area. Boys in the 14-17 division will play at Torrey Pines South, the girls at Torrey Pines North, both for four days. Boys and girls in the 13-14, 11-12 and 10-and-under classes will play three days at Balboa Park, Mission Bay and Presidio Hills, respectively. Previous winners include Craig Stadler, Nick Price, Amy Alcott, Laura Baugh, Corey Pavin and Sam Randolph. . . . Marge Callahan of South Pasadena shot a 52-hole total of 253 in winning the club championship of the Brookside Women’s Golf Club in Pasadena.