Crenshaw Sees a Ray of Hope

Nobody was happier than Ben Crenshaw when the sun broke through Saturday for the third round of the Infiniti Tournament of Champions at La Costa.

Crenshaw, the PGA Tour’s seventh-leading money-winner with earnings of $4,466,268, isn’t golf’s version of a mudder. When rain fell almost incessantly Thursday and Friday, he had to struggle to keep from dropping out of sight. He opened with a 74, then rallied for a 70 to hit the halfway mark at par.

Saturday, though, was Gentle Ben’s kind of day. He shot a five-under-par 67, matching Fred Couples for the best score of the third round, and climbed to the fringe of contention. His 54-hole total of 211 sent him into an eighth-place tie with Mark O’Meara, each eight strokes behind Tom Kite.

Crenshaw had seven birdies and two bogeys, the second of which left him shaking his head as he walked off the 18th green. A bad second shot on the final hole--he pulled an iron, leaving the ball in the left bunker--may have cost him two strokes and a 65, which would have tied Wadkins for the hottest round of the tournament.

“I muttered to myself a lot today, but overall I had a good solid round,” Crenshaw said. “I’d just like to have that second shot on 18 back. That was probably my worst one of the day.”

Crenshaw didn’t use the rain of the first two days as an excuse, but made a point of his distaste for that kind of weather.

“Let’s say the rain didn’t help,” he said. “This being the first tournament of the year, I’m trying to get out the cobwebs as best I can. I know the rest of the state needs the rain, but it’s annoying to golfers.

“Rain is especially bad for guys who tend to go deep. . . . I’ll take wind any time over rain, even 30-degree weather. I can wear rain clothes, but I don’t feel right in them.”

Crenshaw, who will turn 39 next Friday, has won 15 tournaments, including the 1984 Masters. He might have won the 1989 Masters if a downpour hadn’t intervened.

“I was playing real well for three days,” Crenshaw recalled. “Then it started raining.”

And as if the weather itself wasn’t enough of a deterrent, the Masters was lost when Crenshaw’s caddy ran out of towels. He was on the last hole, set to join Nick Faldo and Scott Hoch in a playoff, when his wet hand slipped as he swung his club on an iron shot. The ball landed in a bunker, and he finished a stroke behind.

The 1989 and 1990 seasons were not especially happy ones for Crenshaw. After three years in a row in the top 10 in earnings, the University of Texas alumnus skidded to 21st and 33rd places and won only one tournament.

That lone victory, though, gave Crenshaw hope that he had regained his touch. He got it in May in the Southwestern Bell Colonial in Fort Worth.

“When you’ve gone so long (two years) without winning, you start to wonder,” he said.

Crenshaw’s fine round Saturday was sullied by several missed putts that he termed “makeable,” but he didn’t complain.

“I hadn’t played since Greg Norman’s Ronald McDonald Invitational in the middle of November,” Crenshaw said. “I still have to really catch the feel of it.

“I spent a lot of time yesterday (Friday) on the practice green, but I’m not much of a practicer.”

Crenshaw goes into today’s final round eight shots back with seven players in front of him.

“I’ve got to have another round like I did today, or better,” he said. “Maybe it will rain again. They say it always helps the underdog.”

But would it help a fair-weather golfer like Crenshaw?