Beck Goes After Elusive Win : The Man With 7 Second-Place Finishes Leads by 3 Shots Entering Last Round

Chip Beck has finished second so many times in PGA tournaments that he’s almost lost count. He has also led a few going into the final round, at least three or four times.

But he has never won, not once in 10 years.

“I’ve struggled to the point where the struggle doesn’t scare me,” he said Saturday after shooting a six-under-par 65 to set a 54-hole Riviera Country Club course record of 199, 14 under par, in the Los Angeles Open.

The struggle could finally end. The struggle at least for Beck’s first tournament win.

His 199, made by shooting 65-69-65 for three rounds at Riviera, gives him a three-shot lead going into today’s final 18 holes of the $750,000 championship. It also puts him into the record books, one shot better than Lanny Wadkins’ record 200 for three rounds made in 1985.

Closest to Beck, a graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in journalism, is a trio at 202 composed of Steve Elkington, a Crocodile Dundee-type from the Outback of Australia; Jay Haas, winner of the Bob Hope tournament and 1988’s leading money winner; and Ed Fiori, who is winless on tour since the 1982 Hope Classic.

Another shot back, at 203, are Mac O’Grady and Mike Reid, with Mike Hulbert, former L.A. Open champion Tom Purtzer and second-round co-leader Ben Crenshaw at 204. Crenshaw, who hit his first shot of the day out of bounds and bogeyed two of the last three holes, finished with a 71.

“I look forward to going out with the lead tomorrow,” Beck said. “It’s the biggest lead I’ve ever had going into the final round. I’d rather be where I am than not in contention.”

What about the pressure of never having won?

“I will be aware that I have not won before, but I will not be concerned with it. Golf is an art form at this level of competition and having a strong flow of adrenalin can be an asset. Until I am victorious, I will always have self doubts, but I know I am moving in the direction I want to go.”

If Beck needed a shot of confidence, he got it from Haas, one of his Saturday playing partners.

“If Chip plays tomorrow as well as he played today, no one will catch him,” Haas said. “It was a pleasure to watch him play. He’s been there (in the lead) before. The way he plays I’m surprised he has not won before.”

Beck has finished second seven times, including the 1986 U.S. Open where he finished with a 65 at Shinnecock Hills to almost catch Raymond Floyd. He also closed out last year by finishing second in his last two tournaments, the Tucson Open and the Nabisco Championships of Golf.

“I’ve had so many painful experiences that I don’t want to think about them,” Beck said when asked what had been his most bitter disappointment.

There were no disappointments during his round Saturday, however. Or, if there were, they were minor.

“You don’t do a whole lot wrong when you shoot 65 at Riviera,” he said. “This course favors a nice fade, which is my game. I think that is why Ben Hogan liked Riviera so well.”

Hogan won three tournaments at Riviera in an 18-month span in 1947-48, and the course became known as Hogan’s Alley. Another 65 today it might be called Beck’s Boulevard.

One hot putting streak, where he made six birdies in eight holes, plus a 25-foot putt to save par, keyed Beck’s round. “It’ll be the same Sunday (today), the player who wins will be the one who has a hot hand with the putter,” Beck said. “Hopefully, I’ll have it.”

Elkington is also looking for his first win, but this is only his second year on the tour after four years at the University of Houston and a year playing on the European tour.

The 25-year-old Aussie had four short-putt birdies and an eagle on the 310-yard 10th hole where he holed a 50-yard wedge shot.

“There was a big break in the green, and the ball hit and rolled like a putt right into the cup,” Elkington said.

It’s a wonder he is playing at all. He has been bothered for several months with a slipped disk and went to a hospital Monday to have it treated, he broke a toe in his foot when he stubbed it on a rock while surfing in Hawaii (“I probably was watching a girl or something.”) and he takes shots weekly because he is allergic to grass.

He also stubbed his toe on the 18th hole when he missed a short putt for par that gave him his only bogey of the round.

“That was the only chance I even had to make a bogey,” he said. “That’s how well I was hitting the ball. I got off to a good start and I kept it going. Maybe I was a little more tentative at the end of the round. Tomorrow I hope to go out and play aggressively like I did at the start today.”

Haas, who finished second last week at San Diego in addition to winning the Hope, had an uncharacteristic up-and-down round with five birdies and three bogeys. In the first two days, he had only one bogey.

“Two poor drives hurt me,” Haas said. “One went into the trees on No. 2, and on No. 11 I hit a tree and the ball dropped straight down and both cost me a stroke. I guess you could call my round a little ragged today, but it was only a couple of shots from being solid as my first two.”

Rick Pearson, the storybook third alternate from Orange Park, Fla., who was only one shot out of the lead after a pair of 67s, had a more difficult time in the third round as he shot 76. It wasn’t the high round of the day, however. That belonged to defending champion T.C. Chen with a 77.