GOLF / DAN HAFNER : Add Barber, 75, to List of Ageless Wonders

This seems to be the era of ageless athletes. At 44, Nolan Ryan is performing amazing feats. Carlton Fisk is going strong at 43. George Foreman remains a force in boxing at 42 and Jimmy Connors is the sensation of tennis at 39.

And then there is diminutive golfer Jerry Barber.

The longtime Los Angeles resident will celebrate his 50th year as a professional golfer in 1992. He is 75.

And Barber is still going strong on the Senior PGA Tour.

Longevity is a feature of the Barber family. His mother was 103 (and a half, Jerry notes) when she died, and his father was 86. He has eight brothers and sisters, all still living, ranging in age from 87 to 72.

“That’s why I’ve never thought much about my age,” he said. “It is taken for granted in the family. All of them, like me, are enjoying good health.”

Most of the senior players talk about playing with their friends from the regular tour. Not Barber. He is 25 years older than the senior tour rookies and even most of the players in the super seniors (60 or older) are at least a dozen years younger.

Yet, Barber rarely misses a tournament and invariably shoots a round or two under his age. Seniors can ride, but only in the last couple of years has Barber used a cart even part of the time.

Although some of the top senior players, because of injuries and ailments, cannot play in the U.S. Senior Open, which requires the players to walk, Barber never misses it. The tournament is played the last week in July, invariably in extreme heat and humidity. And Barber manages to walk the 72 holes and play reasonably well.

This year it was played at Oakland Hills, in Michigan, and Barber had two 74s and a 75 before posting a 78 in the final round.

“I’ve been walking all my life and it’s no problem,” Barber said. “When I’m not on the tour, I’m on an exercise program which includes walking several miles a day. I don’t eat a lot of junk food or much meat. I am into the right nutrition.”

Barber hasn’t always paid such strict attention to his health. In fact, it was health advocate Jack LaLanne, now 76, whose persistence finally made a believer out of Barber.

“Jack is a tremendous person,” Barber said. “His mind is like a steel trap. Once he gets an idea he just won’t quit.

“It was 31 years ago and I was the pro at Wilshire Country Club. Jack had his health center nearby. He kept insisting that I had to start getting myself into condition. . . .

“He sent me to a nutritionist and set me up with an exercise program. I outlived the doctor, but I have another one I keep in touch with.”

Barber, who turned pro in 1942 and joined the tour in 1948, won eight tournaments. His biggest victory was the PGA championship in 1961. He left the tour in 1962 and spent nearly two decades as the pro at Wilshire Country Club and then Griffith Park.

He thought his career as a competitor was over until the senior tour blossomed. He was already 64 when it was organized in 1980. Still, he has made his mark.

At 5-feet-5 and weighing just 142, Barber was never one of the long hitters. But he has long been considered one of the sport’s great putters. Just recently, Chi Chi Rodriguez, the leading money winner on the senior tour this year, credited Barber for helping him straighten out his stroke. In 1976, Barber helped Tom Watson get his putter working and Watson then won four consecutive money-winning titles on the regular tour.

A hot putter led to Barber’s major victory, the 1961 PGA championship, at Olympia Fields, near Chicago.

Barber, then 45, was trailing Don January, a mere 31, by four shots with three holes remaining. Barber sank putts of 25, 40 and 52 feet and when January bogeyed the 18th, the two-shot switch enabled Barber to tie. In a playoff the next day, Barber shot 67 and won by a stroke.

“I have sunk many long putts,” Barber said. “I started playing when I was 6 and I have spent many hours practicing long putts. I tell people to get out there and practice 40-foot and longer putts. Practicing medium and short putts won’t develop a stroke for long putts.”

Sam Snead made headlines in 1979 when, at 67 he shot 67-66 in successive rounds at the Quad Cities Open.

In almost every tournament, Barber shoots at least one round under his age. In late August, he already had 35 rounds at or under his age.

“But don’t put me in a class with Sam Snead,” Barber said. “He is one of the great athletes of all time. I just happen to have lasted a long time. He was fantastic.”

Although he has not won a senior tour event, Barber has won four Vantage Classics, the tournament within a tournament for the 60-and-older set. And he has been second twice this year.

In his first 21 events this year, Barber had a high finish of 14th and earned $27,894. In the super seniors he was ninth, having earned an additional $51,692.

By contrast, he earned $11,000 for winning the PGA.

“I worked for Spalding at that time and they gave me a $3,500 bonus,” he said. “The money we make on the senior tour has been a godsend to some old-timers who were struggling.”

There are several goals ahead for Barber. An impending challenge is the Security Pacific senior event to be held at Rancho Park Oct. 25-27. Rancho is one of his favorite courses and he thinks he has a shot at winning the super seniors’ event.

But the goal that really keeps him going can be achieved late next year. His son, Tom, who runs the Griffith Park complex, will be 50 on Nov. 6, 1992. Barber is hoping that he and Tom will become the first father and son to play in a senior tour event together.

“Several sponsors have told me that when Tom is eligible, we’ll both be invited,” Barber said. “That would be a fun way to climax my career.”

Golf Notes

Jay Colliatie, general manager and golf pro at PGA West in La Quinta, has been named head of golf operations for the new Pelican Hill Golf Club currently under development at Newport Coast. . . .The second annual Bobby Jones Father/Son Team Classic will be held Dec. 26-30 at three courses on the Monterey Penisula--Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and The Links. . . . Gary Player is scheduled to play in the second annual Security Pacific Senior Classic, Oct. 21-27 at Rancho Park Golf Course. . . . The William H. Parker Los Angeles Police Foundation Pro-Am Challenge tournament is scheduled for Sept. 30 at the Braemar Country Club. Among the pro golfers playing will be Amy Alcott and Cindy Figg-Currier.

Dr. Sidney Rosin got two holes-in-one within five days, after going 17 years without an ace. He got his first on July 30 at Bear Creek Golf Club in Murietta on the par-three, 156-yard 12th hole. Then, on Aug. 3, he got another on the 127-yard 16th hole at Hillcrest Country Club. . . .The Organization for the Needs of the Elderly will hold its third annual celebrity tournament at the Porter Valley Country Club in Northridge on Oct. 21. . . . The Cadillac Invitational, benefiting the National Kidney Foundation of Southern California, will be held at the Soule Park Golf Course in Ojai on Sept. 27.