GOLF : Even PGA Tour Pros Must Stay in Shape

Tom Kite is 40, earned $1,395,000 last year playing golf and was named PGA player of the year.

Last Thursday, for the opening round of the Nissan Los Angeles Open, Kite had a 7:48 a.m. starting time. Most professional golfers arrive at a course about an hour before their tee times to prepare for the round by hitting a few shots with all their clubs on the driving range and then grooving their strokes on the putting green.

Kite arrived at Riviera Country Club about 6 a.m., half an hour earlier than normal, for 20 minutes of warming up exercises in the Centinela Hospital Player Fitness Center van before he ever touched a golf club. After his round, he returned to the Fitness Center for another 45 minutes of riding a stationary bike, running on a treadmill and exercising in place.

“The top guys out there (on the tour) are the guys you see in here,” said Rob Mottram, a physical therapist who helps administer the exercise program for Kite and other PGA Tour players. “If you want to tell who’s been in here, take a look at the money list leaders.

“Many of the golfers in here are working on problems, such as a sore shoulder, aching back or golfers’ elbow, which is quite like tennis elbow, but Kite has no health problems at all. He works out regularly with us so that he won’t.”

Jay Haas, on the other hand, has a problem with a sore left shoulder that needs extra work. He spent 2 1/2 hours with therapists Mottram and Brett Fischer before teeing off at Riviera. His warmup included hot packs on the shoulder, stretching exercises, massage and modalities, an electronic therapy that decreases inflammation and helps heal tissue.

“When he finishes his round, he may hit a few balls on the range, but he’ll be back in here to do some work to help re-strengthen the muscles that were weakened by the soreness in his shoulder,” Mottram said. “We’ll use ice bags or cold packs on the immediate area. The idea is to allow him to play while undergoing rehabilitation.

“Unlike baseball or football players, these guys don’t earn any money when they’re sitting out, nursing injuries, so it is important that they get out and continue playing. We try to make that as painless and as productive as we can.

“Many of them, like Haas and Payne Stewart and Raymond Floyd and Andy North, work closely with therapists and trainers. Others, like Chip Beck, have their own system but they come in and utilize our facilities. Either way, that is what we’re here for.”

Each workout is recorded and the charts are sent to Dr. Frank Jobe at the Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Inglewood, where the information is placed in a computer for sports therapy research. Jobe is medical director of the PGA Tour as well as team physician for the Dodgers.

The Fitness Center van, which has been part of the tour since 1984, is a 45-foot long trailer that expands to 24 feet wide when parked. At Riviera it is in the front parking lot. An identical center is used on the senior tour.

“The fat bellies need us just as much as the flat bellies,” Mottram said. “Some of the seniors practically take up residence in our gym. Bruce Crampton spends so much time with us that we call it the Cramptonmobile.

“Most of the seniors work on their cardiovascular system on the treadmill or the bikes. We have found that walking 18 holes and hitting balls on the range is not enough to keep older muscles at their peak. It takes a little more to help minimize the possibility of injuries.

“The older you get, the more important it is to work on flexibility. When you’re only 20, you wake up loose. The older you get, the longer you have to work on getting loose.”

Approximately 30 golfers a day use the fitness center, but Fischer estimates that 99% of all touring professionals use the facilities at least once during the season. There is no charge.

“If they had this setup several years earlier, it might have saved me from having back surgery,” says Fuzzy Zoeller, the 1979 Masters and 1984 United States Open champion who had surgery for ruptured disks in his back a few months after his Open victory.

Golf Notes

Jean Bryant, director of the Ralph W. Miller Golf Library and Museum at Industry Hills, died last Sunday after a long illness. Mrs. Bryant, whose late husband, Bill, founded the Industry Hills golf complex, had been with the library since it opened in 1979, and was a member of the United States Golf Assn.’s museum committee. She is survived by daughters Rebecca Ann Bostow-Scales of Upland and Patricia Silver of Long Beach; a son, Arthur A. Bostow of Pittsburg, Calif.; eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

The Women’s SoCal Golf Assn. will hold one of its premier events, the 65th annual Mid-Winter Championships, March 5-9, at Los Angeles CC. Next week, the WSCGA Mid-High Scotch Handicap tournament will be played Monday and Tuesday at Western Hills. . . . Another RJ Reynolds Nabisco event is biting the dust. Planters LifeSavers will withdraw its sponsorship of the LPGA Pat Bradley Invitational after this year’s tournament in High Point, N.C.

Ray Navis and his wife Cynthia followed their victory in the SoCal Golf Assn. couples tournament with a win in the International Husband & Wife Championships at Acapulco. Navis, a two-handicap golfer, and Cynthia, a six-handicapper, play at Rancho Santa Fe Farms. . . . Amateurs Pat Maietta of South Hills CC and Bob Clark of Bear Creek CC, and professionals Mike Vandergoes of South Hills and Mark Wotherspoon of Calimesa CC are representing Southern California in the Chrysler National Putting Championship this weekend at the Tournament Players Club in Sarasota, Fla.

Paul J. Spengler Jr. of Woodland Hills has been named vice president of golf for Pebble Beach Co. . . . Dave Phelps of Cardiff battled the winds as well as the Rancho California course in winning the SoCal Lefthanded Golf Assn. tournament with a par 72.

David Leadbetter, 37, born in England, raised in Zimbabwe and now a teaching professional at Lake Nona GC in Orlando, Fla., is the latest guru of golf instruction. Leadbetter, who commands $150 an hour for lessons, lists Nick Faldo, Bob Tway, Scott Simpson and Tom Watson among his pupils. Bay Hill, because Arnold Palmer owns it, and Grand Cypress, because Jack Nicklaus built it, are better known courses in central Florida, but Lake Nona may be the best of them all. The Tom Fazio-built course is only 3 years old but already has been selected by Golf magazine as one of its “100 greatest courses in the world.”

The European PGA has made it easier for South Africans to play on their tour. Formerly, the qualifying school was held at La Manga, Spain, where an anti-apartheid ban prohibited South Africans from playing. The Q-school has been moved to Montpellier, France, where the South Africans will be permitted to play. . . . The Golden State Tour’s Spalding Pro Series will be busy the next two weeks, starting Monday and Tuesday at Quail Ranch GC in Moreno Valley, and then Brookside GC in Pasadena Thursday and Friday, La Purisima GC in Lompoc Mar. 5-6 and the season championships Mar. 8-9 at Sandpiper GC in Goleta.