GOLF / THOMAS BONK : Albus Thrives as Ironman of Senior Tour

This is what you call progress:

--In 1991, Jim Albus was the golf pro at Piping Rock Club on Long Island.

--In 1992, he won $404,693 on the Senior PGA Tour.

--In 1993, he won $627,883.

--In 1994, he has won $990,253.

Back up a little bit. In 1990, most everywhere except New York, there was only one question. Who is Jim Albus?

Well, he’s 54, a former baseball and basketball player at Bucknell and a would-be golfer at UCLA, who has done very well on the post-50 tour.

Since getting his spike marks all over the senior tour, Albus has banked more than $2.3 million, which not only is nice, but may keep him from playing himself ragged. It’s always tee time for Albus. In his three years on the tour, he has missed a total of five events.

Albus played every round in all 35 events on the senior schedule in 1991, mainly because he was trying to finish in the top 30 on the money list and earn an exemption. He finished 20th and earned a reputation.

“I got called ‘Ironman,’ ” he said. “I’m exempt now because of the all-time money list, so I probably will cut down a little next year. But now, I only take time off when I get tired or I start grumping against my wife.”

Albus, Dale Douglass, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Gary Player, Tony Jacklin, Bob Murphy, Simon Hobday and others will play in the $750,000 Ralph’s Senior Classic Oct. 17-18 at Rancho Park, the event benefiting the Centinela Hospital Children’s Charity Fund.

Douglass is the defending champion. He defeated Jim Dent with a birdie on the first hole of a playoff last year. Albus tied for third after opening with a 66.

Maybe that’s not so surprising because Albus is on familiar ground at Rancho Park. When he was at UCLA, Albus was a four-handicapper not quite good enough to play on the team. He had no eligibility left, so it didn’t matter anyway. What mattered to him was playing golf, something he did a lot at Rancho Park.

“I learned to play there,” he said. “I used to spend every possible spare minute I had on the putting green at Rancho.”

Albus, who won the Senior Players Championship in 1991 when he still was a club pro, knows a good thing when he sees it.

“The senior tour, well call it a mulligan, a second chance,” he said. “It works both ways. Some guys like me who haven’t played at all get going, then there are guys who had mediocre careers on the regular tour and all of a sudden they’re stars.”

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Impeach it: Seve Ballesteros is not voting for the Presidents Cup, the Ryder Cup-like competition between American golfers and the rest of the world’s (except Europeans) that is making its debut this weekend.

“I think it’s bad,” Ballesteros told Golf World.

How bad?

“Very bad,” he said. “There’s only one Ryder Cup. I think it’s all business and money more than anything else. I don’t like imitations.”

The Ryder Cup is a United States Golf Assn. event. The PGA Tour runs the Presidents Cup.

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Quiz I: Who said this?: “Something happened to my swing and I don’t know what my tendencies are; I don’t know where it’s going.”

Nick Price after winning the Canadian Open last week.

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Quiz II: Who said this?: “It’s very discouraging to play against that guy.”

Mark Calcavecchia, who lost by a shot to Price despite a closing-round 67 and also finished second to Price at the Western Open.

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Price of success: Price’s victory in Canada assured him of his second consecutive PGA player-of-the-year award with more than double his winning point total of a year ago and the most award points since the new scoring system began in 1982.

Price has 186 points, based on seven victories worldwide. He has 18 victories in the 1990s. Tom Watson, who won the player-of-the-year award five times, had 156 points in 1982 and won 20 times in the 1980s.

Masters champion Jose Maria Olazabal is closest to Price with 66 points.

Golf Notes

The National Assn. of Golf Professionals of Westlake Village is launching a tour with at least six tournaments this year, beginning Oct. 10-11 at China Lakes golf course in Ridgecrest. Women and seniors have separate events. General Manager Dick Corlew said the men’s event will have a purse of $20,000. Details: (805) 373-1211. . . . Johnny Lujack, Glenn Davis, George Blanda, Gene Mauch, Al Rosen and Ann Meyers Drysdale are some of the sports celebrities scheduled to play in the Ralph Kiner Klassic Oct. 28 at Soboba Springs Country Club. The event benefits the San Jacinto Chamber of Commerce. Details: (909) 654-9246.

Anne Sander of Santa Barbara will try for her eighth U.S. Golf Assn. title in the Senior Women’s Amateur Thursday through Friday at Sea Island Golf Club at St. Simons Island, Ga. Sander, 56, won the senior event in 1987, 1989, 1990 and 1993. She won the U.S. Women’s Amateur in 1958, 1961 and 1963. . . . The men’s Senior Amateur will be Monday through Saturday in Nicholasville, Ky.

Walt Hazzard’s celebrity golf classic will Oct. 31 at Spanish Hills Country Club in Camarillo. The event benefits the L.A. Sports Academy. . . . Paul Azinger is the host of a pro-am Monday at Lake Nona in Orlando, Fla., to benefit the Leukemia Society of America’s lymphoma research program. Details: (407) 425-4900. . . . U.S. Amateur champion Tiger Woods of Cypress, making his his collegiate debut for Stanford, finished first in the William B. Tucker Invitational at Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday after shooting 68-72-68 for an eight-under par 208.

The Greater Los Angeles invitational will be played Oct. 10 at Wood Ranch in Simi Valley. The event benefits the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver. Details: (818) 905-1300. . . . A purse of $2.1 million will be at stake in the team match-play Diners Club matches Dec. 8-11 at the Jack Nicklaus course at PGA West at La Quinta. Players will come from the PGA Tour, including Lanny Wadkins and Azinger, the LPGA tour (Donna Andrews and Michelle McGann, Laura Davies and Karen Lunn, Patty Sheehan and Nancy Lopez) and the Senior PGA Tour (Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Bob Murphy and Jim Colbert, Dave Stockton and Al Geiberger). The event will benefit the VIVA Foundation for the Eisenhower Medical Center’s programs with Sexual Assault Services.