Colbert Is a Big Attraction on Tour

Jim Colbert makes money playing golf as if he has magnets strapped to his body. Actually, he does.

Last week, when Colbert won the Vantage Championship, worth $180,000, he wore a belt with three magnets touching his back. Colbert is convinced the magnets help his bad back, which explains why he carries a mattress with 350 magnets with him when he travels.

And if anyone wants to ask him just what the attraction is about magnets, Colbert will tell him that they stimulate blood flow and promote healing.

“It can’t solve my back problems, but . . . it helps,” he said of his magnet belt.

Shooting low scores has helped his earnings ledger and Colbert will be one of the favorites when the $800,000 Ralph’s Senior Classic begins Friday at Wilshire Country Club.

Arnold Palmer is entered, and so are Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Gil Morgan, Dave Stockton, Chi Chi Rodriguez and defending champion John Bland.

Colbert finished second to Bland by a shot in last year’s event, but he won four tournaments and wound up as the leading money winner on the Senior PGA Tour with $1.4 million.

Colbert, a three-time winner this year, has made $1.25 million and is second on the money list to Hale Irwin with $1.44 million.

“Before I could hardly enjoy what I did last year, I started thinking I had to do it again or everybody would think it was a fluke,” Colbert said.

The 55-year-old Colbert won seven times on the PGA Tour and made $1.55 million between 1966 and 1990. In his six years on the senior tour, he has made more than $7.7 million.

But if it weren’t for the magnets, Colbert said he wouldn’t even be playing. He has worn them for nearly three years.

“I have not missed one day of golf I’ve wanted to play in that time,” he said.

He estimated that half the senior tour players wear magnets.

“I work out and stretch all the time, but this makes a big difference,” he said.

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Golf at a Glance

RALPH’S SENIOR CLASSIC

* Site: Wilshire Country Club (6,575 yards, par 71)

* Schedule: Friday-Sunday.

* Purse: $800,000.

* Winner’s Share: $120,000.

* Television: None.

* Last year: John Bland, a South African making his second tour start, finished with a 6-under 65 for a one-stroke victory over Jim Colbert. Bland, who has three victories this year, had a 12-under 201 total.