Geiberger Discovers That Life Goes On : Loss of His Son Was Latest Tragedy That Golfer Had to Overcome

This is a wonderful time to be a member of the Senior PGA Tour. It has given a large number of the 50-and-older professional golfers a second career. Why shouldn’t they be happy? They are making more money than they ever dreamed possible.

Beginning Thursday, the seniors will play in the $370,000, 72-hole Vintage Chrysler Invitational at the Vintage Country Club in Indian Wells.

It will be fun for most. But for one of the top contenders, it probably won’t be. It is with a heavy heart that Al Geiberger competes these days.

Geiberger’s 2-year-old son, Matthew, drowned in a community swimming pool near his home in Palm Desert, just a couple of miles down the hill from the Vintage, last August.

“I didn’t touch a club for a month,” said Geiberger, who has had one problem after another since becoming a pro golfer after graduating from USC in 1959. “But there becomes a time when you have to go on with life. It’s what I do for a living and I was sort of forced to go back.

“What happened to Matthew has given me a new perspective on life. What seemed important before isn’t anymore.”

When he became eligible for the older circuit on Sept. 1, 1987, Geiberger was in his element. He won three tournaments, even though the season was almost over when he started. One was the Vantage championship in South Carolina with a first prize of $135,000, almost triple the biggest purse in his 11 wins on the regular tour.

Since his return, he has been competitive, finishing second three times. In his second tournament back, he tied for second in his defense of the Vantage and earned more than $68,000.

Geiberger will probably forever be remembered as the only golfer to shoot a 59 in PGA competition. It happened in the Memphis Open on the second round in 1977. Despite all the young long-ball hitters and the improved equipment, nobody has matched that score and he is still known as Mr. 59.

Geiberger thought he had put his problems behind him when he married the former Carolyn Spring in 1985. Carolyn gave birth to two healthy sons, and the senior tour enabled Geiberger to recover financially. Everything was rosy until tragedy struck again.

“It was tougher on Carolyn than on me,” he said. “Matthew was her first child. I had already had four from the other marriages. I think it helped her to have another son, Al Jr., who was born just before the 1988 Tournament of Champions. But she still blames herself. It has been difficult, but with the help of a wonderful psychologist in Santa Barbara, Ira Weinstein, she is recovering.”

Carolyn was getting ready to take Matthew and Al’s 12-year-old son, Bryan, swimming. She thought Bryan was watching him. Matthew strolled out, passed the room in which Bryan was watching TV, out an unlatched door and wandered about 150 yards through neighbors’ yards to the pool, which wasn’t fenced. By the time Carolyn found him in the pool, it was too late. Matthews’ little lungs had absorbed too much water.

Geiberger was in Lexington, Ky., playing in a senior event. Matthew was still alive when Geiberger arrived home, but just barely, and died shortly afterward.

“It was soon after I started playing again that I heard someone moaning about a stupid mistake he made on the course,” Geiberger said. “I thought, ‘He has no idea what a stupid mistake really is.’

“It took a series of stupid mistakes, I guess you would call them, for Matthew to die. Just think, if any one hadn’t happened he’d be alive.

“A few days before on one of our walks, I showed Matthew the pool and he kept wanting to go swimming. If I hadn’t shown him the pool . . .

“If Carolyn hadn’t spent longer than usual getting ready . . .

“If Bryan hadn’t been so absorbed in television that he didn’t see Matthew walking by the door . . .

“If the cleaning woman had latched the door as she had been told to do . . .

“And, if all those people had not failed to notice a 2-year-old heading for the pool . . . “As the psychologist told us, it was just plain bad luck.”

The Geibergers had already started plans to build a home in Solvang, about 35 miles from Santa Barbara. Geiberger, born in Red Bluff, has lived much of the time since he was 15 in the Santa Barbara area. At first, they thought about scrapping the plans, but decided to go ahead, in part because Carolyn did not wish to go back to the house in Palm Desert. It has helped keep Carolyn busy and her mind off Matthew.

They have been renting in Santa Barbara since the tragedy. Friends in Santa Barbara have made it easier for the Geibergers to recover from their loss.

But mostly, it has been the counseling. Dr. Weinstein warned them that many times such a loss wrecks a marriage.

“There were times when I was afraid it might,” Geiberger said. “But the psychologist is a pro. I have marveled at the way he has been with Carolyn. She was quite confused. He knows how to say the right thing in the right way. If I had tried to say some of those things to Carolyn, it would have caused trouble.

“He will not let us avoid the problem. Carefully, he has Carolyn facing some problems, but not too often or too much.

“I keep seeing the changes. For instance, she couldn’t speak to Bryan for a long time. Not long ago she asked him to come live with us. She wanted to get rid of Matthew’s toys, but I packed them away. Now, she can look at them.

“When I had a corporate outing last month in Florida, Carolyn, Bryan and Al Jr. went with me. Shortly before his death we had taken Matthew to Disneyland. We took the boys to Disney World, which is quite similar and Carolyn was able to handle it.”

Carolyn does not look at pictures of Matthew, but she does have a keepsake, a crumpled baseball card.

“Bryan, who is probably the best athlete of all my kids, collects baseball cards,” Geiberger said. “Matthew, although he didn’t know what it was all about, was collecting them, too.

“Carolyn was driving us up to Solvang to see how the house was coming along. I looked in the glove compartment and found a crumpled up card. I started to get rid of it, but she stopped me and said, ‘That’s mine, please put it back.’ That was another indication she’s making progress.

“That’s all you can do. You can’t forget, but you have to go on. There’s not a hell of a lot else you can do.

“I have a couple of keepsakes, too. When I took a truck down to pick up things we needed in Santa Barbara, I found this wallet-size picture of Matthew, which had dropped down behind a table. It isn’t the best picture of him, but I thought it meant something that I found it, so I keep it in my wallet.

“When Matthew and I were on one of our walks, he found a rock. It became sort of his pet rock. I also found that in the old house. I put it in my golf bag so I always have something when I’m playing that was important to him.

“Golf is a slow sport. You have plenty of time to think of things. When play is slow, I have a problem because my thoughts always turn to Matthew.

“I returned for a tournament in Georgia to get ready for defense of the Vantage. I didn’t play very well. I had to force myself to concentrate. It just didn’t seem important. But I shot a 71 on the final round, then really surprised myself at the Vantage, finishing in a tie for second.”

It was nothing new for Geiberger to battle his way back. He joined the PGA Tour in 1960, winning three tournaments in his first five years. He became noticed because, at a skinny 6-foot-2, he consumed peanut butter sandwiches while he was playing to keep up his energy while winning the 1966 PGA.

He did not win another tournament for eight years, although he played well until 1969, when he went through a divorce. Then an inflamed colon nearly ended his career.

He came back to win the 1974 Sahara Invitational. Then, on a hot Friday in 1977 at the Memphis Open, he shot the greatest round ever in competition. He hit every fairway and every green and hardly missed a putt to post the fabulous 59, 13 under par.

One of the things he remembers most about the round was a 20-foot birdie putt that just failed to drop.

His last victory on the regular tour was at the Colonial in Ft. Worth in 1979. The $54,000 purse was his biggest ever. Then came another setback, knee surgery and later more stomach problems.

“I had had intestinal problems for a long time,” Geiberger said. “In 1978 because of massive polyps, they removed three inches of my colon.

“By 1980, the polyps were back in a big mass. They were like a bunch of grapes the size of a baseball and they created a blockage. They had no choice but to take out the entire colon.

“The procedure was called an ileostomy. When I found I had to wear a plastic bag, I was very depressed. I thought it would be worse than no more golf, it was the end of the world. It helped me recover mentally when I learned that Rolf Benirschke, then the field goal kicker for the (San Diego) Chargers, had undergone the same operation. We became good friends and he really helped me.”

In 1986, Geiberger started preparing himself to join the senior group. And when he turned 50, he was ready for yet another comeback.

In a 21-day stretch shortly after he became eligible, Geiberger earned $212,333, more than the $179,000 he won in 1979, his best year on the regular tour. His fortunes turned for the better again.

He hasn’t won a tournament since the death of his son, but he has won $53,000 this year in three events.

He says he has no bitterness.

“No, I don’t feel sorry for myself,” Geiberger said. “Life isn’t just the good things. It is also a series of problems. I’m 51 and I’m in reasonably good health. What more can you ask for?”