GOLF / SHAV GLICK : It Wasn’t Difficult to Choose the Best of 1990

Rarely in recent years has it been as easy to select golf’s players of the year as it was in 1990.

Nick Faldo, Lee Trevino, Beth Daniel and Phil Mickelson stood out like beacons.

Faldo played only seven events on the PGA Tour, but the tall Englishman won the Masters for the second year in a row and the British Open for the second time and failed by only a stroke of making the playoff for the U.S. Open title.

The PGA of America recognized his feats by making him the first foreigner to be named its player of the year.

Greg Norman was the tour’s leading money winner with $1,165,477 and the Vardon Trophy winner for having the year’s lowest scoring average, but when it came to a head-to-head showdown against Faldo, Norman failed miserably.

On the Old Course at St. Andrews, where Faldo and Norman were tied for the lead after 36 holes of the British Open and in a match-play situation, Faldo shot a 67 and Norman a 76.

Wayne Levi of the United States won four tournaments--two more than anyone else on the American tour--and more than $1 million but was never a factor in a major tournament.

Hale Irwin, 45, whose dramatic playoff victory over Mike Donald made him the U.S. Open’s oldest champion, won the next week in the Buick tournament, but that was it for him.

Trevino, in his first year on the Senior PGA Tour, made more money than Norman, earning $1,190,518 in 29 events. Trevino won seven tournaments, including three of his first four, to become the first senior to collect more than the leading money-winner on the PGA Tour--even though the senior circuit offered about $18 million less in prize money.

Jack Nicklaus, the other senior rookie, won two of the four events he entered. In the U.S. Senior Open, Nicklaus needed to make a three-foot birdie putt to have a chance of catching Trevino and forcing a playoff. The putt set up one of the most prophetic lines of the sports year on TV.

“Jack has a habit of peeking on these,” Trevino said from the TV tower. “And when he does, it goes (to the) right.”

Nicklaus peeked, and the ball drifted right of the cup.

Daniel won seven tournaments, including the LPGA Championship, was the leading women’s money-winner with $863,578--which would have been good enough for No. 6 on the men’s list--and also took the Vare Trophy for low scoring average of 70.54.

Her only challengers were Patty Sheehan, who won five tournaments and was runner-up in earnings, scoring and player-of-the-year points, and Betsy King, who won two major titles--the Dinah Shore and the U. S. Open--but only one other tournament.

The most dominating of all was Mickelson, the San Diego left-hander who won the U.S. Amateur title and his second consecutive NCAA championship, then said that instead of turning professional immediately, he planned to remain at Arizona State two more years and get his degree.

Only Nicklaus, when he was 21 and a senior, had won the Amateur and the NCAA in the same season. Mickelson did it as a sophomore of 19.

“College golf is my No. 1 priority; I plan on staying all four years,” said Mickelson, who became the first left-hander to win the Amateur when he defeated his former high school teammate, South African Manny Zerman of Arizona. Mickelson and Zerman both attended University High in San Diego.

Mickelson also won the Pacific 10 title, the Porter Cup (shooting a record 63 in the final round), the USA-Japan Friendship matches and the Rebel tournament and was low amateur in the U. S. Open.

Next April, in the first round of the Masters, there will be a pairing of 6-foot-3 champions when Mickelson and Faldo tee off together. And a couple of months later, Mickelson will attempt to be the only collegian to duplicate Ben Crenshaw’s three consecutive NCAA titles, which Crenshaw won in 1971-73.

Mickelson will open the 1991 season with a sponsor’s exemption into the Shearson Lehman Brothers Open Feb. 14-17 at Torrey Pines, a course Mickelson played during the Optimist Junior World Championships a few years ago.

Golf Notes

Greg Norman will make his only 1991 Southern California PGA Tour appearance in the Infiniti Tournament of Champions, which starts Thursday at La Costa. Norman plans to return to Australia afterward and will play only in the AT&T; tournament at Pebble Beach before rejoining the tour in Florida in late February. Norman finished third, fourth and fifth in three previous tries at La Costa.

Tom Addis III, head professional at Singing Hills CC in El Cajon, is on course to become president of the PGA after his election as secretary during the association’s 74th meeting at the La Quinta Hotel. At the same meeting, Dick Smith of Williamstown, N.J., succeeded Pat Rielly of Pasadena’s Annandale GC as president. Addis, 45, was twice named SoCal PGA professional of the year, and two years ago received the National Golf Foundation’s Joe Graffis Award for outstanding service and dedication to the advancement of golf.

The Golden State Tour, which has grown from nine tournaments in 1983 to encompass 175 days of golf this year, will open its ninth season Jan. 7 on the Eisenhower course at Industry Hills. Owner/operator Doug Ives has more than 150 one-, two-, three- and four-day events scheduled in 1991 for his 900 members, who are almost equally divided among professionals and amateurs.

Howard Smith, a three-time president of the SoCal PGA in 1964, 1968-70 and 1974, is the newest member of the SCPGA Hall of Fame. Smith, operator of the Green River and Riverside GC courses, was national professional of the year in 1965 and received the same honor in the SoCal district four times between 1963 and ’69. Also honored by the SCGA were Scott Bentley of Mt. Woodson CC, as player of the year; Perry Dickey Jr. of SeaCliff CC in Huntington Beach, as professional of the year; Andy Gustafson, executive director of the SoCal Golf Assn., as recipient of the President’s Award, and Gerald Ford and Dinah Shore, as honorary life members.

Long Beach city courses have been cited by the National Golf Foundation for a public golf achievement award. Also honored were Menifee Lakes CC, Marriott’s Desert Springs Resort in Palm Desert and Rancho Bernardo Inn in San Diego.

One of the more unusual winners during the year was Grace Blevens of Hacienda GC, who teamed with club champions Millie Stanley of Wilshire, Mosako Iqushi of Friendly Hills and Marg Cryan of Hacienda to win a tournament on her home course. Mrs. Blevens, who was 46 before she held a golf club, was 91 at the time.

Bryan Pemberton, a USC senior, used an eight-iron to make a hole-in-one on Lakeside’s 15th hole in a USC Alumni tournament. It was his second ace on the same hole in two months.