Golf : Ballesteros Says He’s Too Busy to Rejoin Tour

After hinting he might rejoin the PGA Tour as a card-carrying member, Seve Ballesteros has changed his mind.

Ballesteros, the three-time British Open champion from Spain, said before the Open at Lytham & St. Annes that he was seriously considering playing the 15 official PGA events required of tour players.

“I just can’t play 15 tournaments here and 9 in Europe and 2 in Japan,” Ballesteros said this week. “So I don’t think I’ll join the PGA Tour again.”

Ballesteros, who was a PGA Tour member in 1984 and 1985, was barred from the tour in 1986 because he played just nine events in 1985.

In the past two years, Ballesteros has played only in the major tournaments in the United States and five events in which he receives a sponsor’s exemption.

Meanwhile, another international golf star who is a PGA Tour member may have his status scrutinized.

Greg Norman plans to play only three more official money events the rest of the year--the World Series of golf, the Canadian Open and the Nabisco Championships--which would mean he would play in 14 events, one short of the minimum required to keep his PGA Tour card for 1989.

Norman is playing in the PGA Championship, his first event since he injured his wrist at the U.S. Open in June. Norman will certainly claim the injury prevented him from reaching the minimum.

But there are several official tour events left on the schedule--such as the Walt Disney in late-October in Florida--if Norman wishes to pick up one more. However, Norman has committed to tournaments elsewhere.

What will the PGA Tour do with Norman? Probably nothing. There is no way it will bar Norman from the 1989 PGA tour and lose one of its biggest attractions.

Golf course architect Pete Dye, the Marquis de Sade of design in the minds of many professionals, is certain of what will happen to the course design business now that more and more touring pros are getting into the act.

‘They’ll mess ‘em up,” Dye said. “They’ll have ‘em all so flat nobody will play them.”

Odd couple: Mac O’Grady and Deane Beman have buried the hatchet . . . at least for now.

O’Grady, who has been at odds with Beman, the PGA commissioner, for years, sat down at the same table in the Oak Tree clubhouse and talked about their many differences. They even shook hands.

Beman apparently backed off his intention to fine O’Grady $250 for an incident at the U.S. Open. A spectator was accidentally struck by a pebble when O’Grady struck the ground with his club.

O’Grady, winless since the 1987 MONY Tournament of Champions, is letting his hair grow. He said he will not cut it until he wins again.

The U.S. Open has chosen sites through 1993, but there are a number of potential hosts for the event interested in holding the tournament in years to come.

The four major contenders, according to Sports Inc. magazine, are Oakmont Country Club and Southern Hills Country Club, which have staged the Open before, and newcomers Pinehurst and Oak Tree. Pinehurst spent $500,000 to replace its Bermuda greens with the faster bent grass the United States Golf Assn. favors for the Open competition.

Bob Makoski, who shot a 69 in the first round of the PGA Championship, is an ex-Angel farmhand.

Makoski, 37, is from West Bloomfield, Mich., where he is the club pro at Knollwood Country Club. In 1973, the 6-foot 4-inch, 193-pound Makoski was an outfielder at Covington, Ky. He didn’t exactly impress an Angel scout who filed this report:

“He doesn’t show much with the bat. He had trouble hitting the ball good in batting practice. He doesn’t run very well. He had some trouble with thrown balls.”

Angel General Manager Mike Port commented after reading the 15-year-old scouting report: “He couldn’t hit the ball well, but he was real good around the greens.”

Five-time PGA champion Jack Nicklaus missed the cut after shooting 72-79, which included a quadruple-bogey 9 on the 16th hole Friday. He was not amused.

“When I play like that, I feel like I should go home and put my clubs in the closet and quit playing. But I won’t do that. I’m not that kind of guy.”

What did missing the cut mean?

“It means that for the last two days I’ll go sit in the television tower,” Nicklaus said. “That just thrills me.”