Open Winner Will Be No. 1--for Week : Ballesteros, Norman, Lyle, Strange Are the Top Candidates for the Honor

By THOMAS BONK

June 16, 1988 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

BROOKLINE, Mass. —

For everyone who has been waiting for him, it is certain that the real No. 1 player in all of golfdom will show up this weekend, stand out on the small, round, hard putting surfaces that sound more like marble slabs than greens from their description, win the U.S. Open, then ride a golf cart off into the New England sunset toward certain riches and a marvelous future.

Or maybe not.

In professional golf, there may be no greater authority than 48-year-old Jack Nicklaus, who said he is sure that the U.S. Open, which begins today at the storied Country Club, will give us the top golfer in the world.

“It sure will--for this week,” Nicklaus said.

For U.S. Open winners, fame is not just fleeting, sometimes it’s on the dead run. (See Andy North). Scott Simpson, who won last year, missed four consecutive cuts this year and has faded quicker than a left-to-right drive off the tee. But at least Simpson is realistic about his chances to repeat.

“In all probability, there’s probably going to be a new U.S. Open champion after this week,” Simpson said.

So, who’s it going to be? And when he wins it, is he No. 1?

It hasn’t been two weeks since two-time Open champion Hale Irwin proclaimed Curtis Strange the best in the world, a mantle that hangs heavy on golf’s leading money winner in 1987, and already there is general disagreement on the subject.

Although the New York Times sided with Irwin about Strange--and who could argue with that August publication--there is still no clear consensus.

Strange days, indeed, Nicklaus said.

“I’m not trying to downgrade him, but he hasn’t won a major yet,” Nicklaus said. “It’s just as simple as that. I think Curtis is a pretty damned good golfer. But let him win some U.S. Opens. Then you can talk about it legitimately.”

Nicklaus sat next to Greg Norman and said he is playing in his 32nd consecutive U.S. Open.

Said Norman: “Gosh, I’m 33 years old.”

Said Nicklaus: “That all?”

Said Norman: “That tells us how old you are.”

At 33, Strange may not have won any of golf’s major tournaments in his 12 years as a professional, but that still leaves him just one behind Norman, the 1986 British Open champion.

Strange’s credentials are impressive otherwise. He has won twice this year, 5 times in 10 months and 14 times in all, but how Strange has played the majors may hurt his support for the No. 1 ranking.

Two years ago, Sony began ranking the top players by computer, calculating tournament finishes by grading each event in terms of difficulty. This year’s tournaments are weighted more heavily than those in the past to make them more current.

According to Sony, the No. 1 player in the world is Norman. He is followed by Sandy Lyle, Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer. Strange is ranked No. 5.

Norman has won 20 times since 1985, the first year that tournaments figured into the rankings, and finished in the top 10 in five majors. Lyle has only two top-10 finishes in majors but they were both firsts. He won the 1985 British Open and this year’s Masters.

Ballesteros, with seven top 10 finishes in the majors, and Langer, with six, both top Strange’s total of two since 1985--ninth in the 1987 PGA and a tie for fourth at the 1987 U.S. Open.

There may be other factors at work here. Since Norman is an Australian, Lyle from Great Britain, Ballesteros a Spaniard and Langer a West German, Strange is conspicuous as the only U.S. player even in the running for consideration as the world’s best.

“I feel a little like, who was it? Duane Bobick?” Strange asked, referring to the heavyweight fighter served up as Ken Norton’s punching bag.

“I wouldn’t say I was the great American hope,” he said. “That’s a terrible way to put it. We’re all golfers. I don’t care if you’re from Spain, Australia, England or America.”

Tom Watson, who won the Open in 1982 and was runner-up to Larry Nelson in 1983 and Simpson last year at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, said people never tire of asking him to identify the next great American star.

“Well, right now, Curtis is about it,” Watson said.

Nicklaus said he doesn’t need a passport to know who is playing the best. “The dominant players today are not American players,” he said.

Five times the PGA’s leading money winner, Watson contends that selecting the No. 1 player in his sport is simply a matter of conjecture.

“It’s all debatable,” Watson said. “Lyle, Norman, Seve, Curtis, who do you pick? Really, how do you rank a golfer? Whoever wins the most, whoever wins the most important tournaments, I guess.”

But doesn’t the game’s greatest player have to win a major? Watson thought about that for a while.

“Yes, so that takes Curtis right out of it,” he said.

However, Strange thinks he’s going to be right in it during the Open at The Country Club, which has twice before played host to the Open. In 1913, Francis Ouimet, an amateur and a former caddie at The Country Club, defeated British pros Harry Vardon and Ted Ray in a playoff victory that helped vault golf to new popularity in the U.S.

The other Open here was in 1963, when Julius Boros defeated Arnold Palmer and Jacky Cupit in another 18-hole playoff.

“I’m playing good and my confidence is running high,” Strange said. “All the talk the last couple of weeks, I try not to think about it. I don’t really pay that much attention to who’s 1, 2 or 3. That’s not for me to say.

“I just feel like I’m ready to play,” he said. “I’m mentally ready. Now all I have to do is go out and play. I might fall on my face, but what the hell? I have a chance to win it.”

So do many players, not the least of whom are Ballesteros and Norman, the golfer Nicklaus has anointed as the game’s best.

“Greg just absolutely devastates the field overseas,” Nicklaus said. “There’s not anyone who’s playing remotely close to what he’s done.”

Ballesteros is coming off a win last week at Westchester and seems to feel that The Country Club may suit his long-distance game enough to use a driver on the narrow fairways.

And who is No. 1?

“Whoever wins the most money,” Ballesteros said.

Norman has done all right in that department this year. He has already won $671,940 in prize money, not counting appearance fees. Norman is a five-time winner already this season. He won three tournaments of in Australia, the Italian Open and the Heritage.

Like Ballesteros, he plans to use his driver as much as he can, but that may only work if he keeps the ball moving straight ahead.

“If you miss the ball in the wrong place, you’re history,” he said.

Watson said that the Open champion is going to have to use a 1-iron or a 3-wood on a lot of holes for greater control.

Open courses normally have the same characteristics: firm and fast greens, narrow fairways and heavy rough. But because of the heat in the Boston area, the rough has thinned out somewhat.

The most difficult holes at the Country Club are 11, 12 and 13, which Watson calls “the meat” of the course.

“If you get through those holes OK, a short-hitter has a chance to win this tournament,” Watson said.

Of these holes, the toughest is probably the 450-yard No. 12, a two-level test that is usually a par-5, but is a par-4 for the Open.

The 12th is considered tougher than the 11th because it is more difficult to get the ball onto the green. Many players will probably use an iron to stay short of a cliff, which takes the golfer to an upper portion of the fairway. From there, a player has a blind shot and must hit a slight draw to a small green that is still more than 200 yards away.

“If there’s an east wind, there’ll be more 6s and 7s there than you’ll see on a craps table,” Watson said.

U.S. OPEN GOLF CHAMPIONSHIP At Stake: 88th American national championship.

Dates: Today through Sunday.

Site: The Country Club, Brookline, Mass.

Course Length: 7,010 yards.

Par: 35-36--71.

Format: 72 holes (18 holes daily), stroke play.

Cut: After 36 holes, field will be trimmed to low 60 scorers and all tied

for 60th place, and all within 10 strokes of the leader.

Playoff (if necessary): Sudden death, Sunday afternoon.

Purse: $1 million.

Winner’s Share: $180,000.