Kite Stays Untrue to Form : Golf: Cross-handed putting helps him shoot a 68 for second place in first round of the T of C.

Tom Kite is proof a golfer doesn’t have to putt exceptionally well to make it big.

Kite has had so much putting trouble over the years that he has resorted to a cross-handed grip. Last year, his average of 30.06 putts per round buried him in 170th place in that category on the PGA Tour.

But who has to be a good putter when he consistently plants the ball as close to the cup as does Kite? He is so adept at hitting greens in regulation that he is the leading money-winner of all time, having earned $6,258,893 in 19 seasons on the tour.

Thursday, it was business as usual for Kite, the 41-year-old Texas alumnus, at the Infiniti Tournament of Champions at La Costa. Cross-handed putting style and all, Kite began the new year right by shooting a four-under-par 68, good for a second-place tie with Chip Beck. Leader Lanny Wadkins shot a 65.

Obviously not bothered by the rain that fell most of the day, Kite said, “I wasn’t great, but I avoided any disasters. This weather was great after Texas. It was so lovely back there that I could hardly tear myself away. It got up to 30 degrees some days.

“I’m very pleased. I like my position.”

Kite also liked the way his off-beat putting style worked in his season debut. He shot six birdies and two bogeys in putting together nines of 34 each. Typically, the longest putt he sank was 15 feet, on the second hole.

“I putted real well today,” he said. “My stroke is good enough for me right now. I plan to stay with it.”

Kite first putted cross-handed midway through the 1989 season. He tried it out of frustration during the Kemper Open in Potomac, Md.

You might assume that because Kite finished that tournament well and went on to lead the tour with a career-high $1,395,278, he would never putt the accepted way again.

For some reason, though, it took time before he became sold on the idea. He went back and forth between conventional and ersatz putting until he finally settled on the cross-handed grip while winning the St. Jude Classic in Memphis last August. The last time he putted with his right hand over his left was in the 1990 British Open.

Later in the season, Kite encountered what for him was a slump. After four consecutive top-10 finishes and eight in nine years, he was in 15th place with a mere $658,202 in earnings.

At that point, the logical assumption was that Kite would start tinkering again, but he somehow resisted the temptation. He made up his mind to stick with the cross-handed method, and his first round of 1991 strengthened his feeling that he had made the right decision.

“Everybody associates it with being a bad putter,” Kite said. “But I don’t hear many guys bragging about their putting.

“Frank Beard (the first-round Senior Tour leader with a 69) was an exception. I remember in my first couple years on the tour, he would say he was one of the greatest. He always bragged about what a great putter he was.

“But for the most part, you don’t hear much from the players about that sort of thing.

Actually, Kite wasn’t being inventive when he started putting cross-handed. As far back as 1969, Orville Moody putted that way when he won the U.S. Open. Bruce Lietzke did it for years before changing to a long putter in 1989, and others have done it for varying periods of time.

Asked if many golfers putt cross-handed today, Kite said, “Quite a few. And maybe if I have a good year, everybody will start changing.”

Kite often has said he “wants to be remembered as a great player,” adding, “To do that you have to win a bunch.”

As successful as he has been since joining the tour in 1972, he hasn’t quite reached the top of the mountain. His total of 14 victories is modest considering that he has earned more money than anybody else, and it doesn’t include any of the majors--Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA.

Obviously, then, winning at least one major is among Kite’s goals for 1991, but he wouldn’t specify that when the question came up.

“Yes, I have goals,” he said, “but Christy (his wife) has them and that’s enough. I think everybody knows what they are.

“If you set lofty goals, people think you’re cocky. If you set reasonable ones, they say you’re not being realistic. I’ll just let you all guess.”