Adding to His Major Title No Minor Feat for Sluman

Golf is a sport that loves its trivia, loves to play word games. “Who is the best golfer never to have won a major?” is a favorite. The answer, of course, is Mark O’Meara. O’Meara has won 14 tournaments, but none of them was a Masters, British or U.S. Open or a PGA. It used to be Tom Kite, but his 17th tour victory was a U.S. Open.

“Who is the best golfer never to have won at all?” comes up often in locker room bull sessions. Bobby Wadkins is the answer, although it used to be Fred Hawkins and could be a Tommy Tolles, Terry Dill or Lee Rinker.

Then, there was the ever-popular “Who is the best golfer to have won a major and nothing else?”

We lost that one last week--or, at least, lost half of it--when, to the intense relief of everybody who knew how good he was, Jeff Sluman finally nailed that elusive second tournament at Tucson. That leaves Orville Moody as the sole answer to the conundrum. Moody won the 1969 U.S. Open. Period.

Winning is not easy on today’s tour. A lot of fine golfers have never won a regular tour tournament. Smuggling a lead into the clubhouse on a Sunday afternoon is a little like trying to get a Rolex through Central Park at midnight. Not for the chary.

Winning a major is even more difficult. A weekly tournament may entertain a so-so field. A major fields the titans of the game. You might win the Walt Disney World with your B game. But the British Open? Uh-uh. No way. And you can’t stagger your way to a Masters green coat. Ask Greg Norman.

Which is why a lot of hats were thrown in the air and a lot of locker rooms rang with heartfelt cheers this week when Jeff Sluman finished first at Tucson.

Week in, week out, Sluman is one of the best golfers you will ever see. Oh, he’s not going to make the world forget Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus or Ben Hogan, but who is? With him you get the impeccable swing, the picture follow-through, he’s one of the best-ever at sand saves, and he should be working on his 20th tour victory this week at Riviera, not his third.

Sluman was one of the few tournament regulars who started at the top. The first tournament he won was a major--the 1988 PGA. He thus joined other such golfing greats as Nicklaus, whose first pro win was the 1962 U.S. Open; Lee Trevino, whose first was the 1968 Open; Jerry Pate, whose first win was the 1976 Open, or Jack Fleck, whose first was the 1955 Open. But Nicklaus went on to win 72 other tournaments (and 19 more majors), Trevino went on to add 26 victories (and four more majors), and Pate added seven more victories.

Sluman seemed as if his role model would be Moody, the old Sarge who won late and didn’t win again on the regular tour.

It wasn’t as if Sluman was out there missing cuts and shooting 79s. He was coming up a nickel short, he was in the hunt many a Sunday afternoon. Often, it seemed as if God had it in for him.

It got to be almost a cliche. He could almost hear the commentator in the tower reciting a litany as he came up to 18 putting for third place--or even to make the cut. “That’s Jeff Sluman playing in his 235th tournament without a win.” If he was in the hunt, it was almost a foregone conclusion his ball would find a tree, a pond or a sidehill three-break putt.

To his credit, Sluman never threw a club, cussed out a caddie, blamed the greenskeeper or kicked over a ball-washer.

He had drawn special attention to himself by opening with a major, and he had to live with it.

It wasn’t as if he hadn’t paid his dues. He passed his Q-school and got his card in 1982. Then, promptly lost it and had to get it again. He tried the Asian Tour, the mini-tour, he teed it up wherever he could. At 5 feet 7, he was as hard to find in the rough as a smother hook. Once, when his caddie was trudging through the deep grass, someone asked “Lost ball?” and the caddie shook his head. “Lost golfer,” he explained.

It wasn’t as if he was simply filling a field, either. Ten times he was second, often only a shot behind. He was in three playoffs and lost all of them. He was second at the U.S. Open in ’92 when Tom Kite got the “major” monkey off his back.

He has to be one of the favorites at this week’s Nissan Open at Riviera. He missed winning this tournament by only one shot in 1991. His game is perfect for Riviera--straight. He is not John Daly, but where his tee shots land, not too many opponents get to say “You’re away, Jeff.” Says a grinning Curtis Strange, “He is sneaky long.”

The notion was that Sluman somehow managed to find a way to falter on the 18th hole on Sunday. Not true. His average score on the final 18 (69.8) was eighth best on the tour last year.

Still, it seemed as if the gremlins of golf had struck again on the 18th at Tucson last Sunday when, with a one-stroke lead on Steve Jones, he popped a six-iron into a front bunker with his second shot. He had frittered away his lead when he couldn’t get up and down and had to settle for bogey. Jones could win with a birdie, force a playoff with a par. And he was sitting out on the fairway with a long drive and a short iron to the green.

It looked as if Sluman had receipted for second place No. 11, but Jones knocked his approach over the green. Then, he skulled a lofted iron across the green and couldn’t get down from there. “It looked as if he tried a flop shot that didn’t flop,” Sluman recalled the other day, reconstructing the drama as he sat in the locker room at Riviera.

So, Jeff Sluman’s no longer the answer to a trivia question. It took him nine years to win his second tournament. He could win his third this week.

But, what are his ambitions? A third, fourth or fifth tournament this year? Another major?

None of the above. What has rankled the soul of Sluman is more basic. “I want to make the Ryder Cup team,” he tells you. “I have never made the Ryder Cup team.

“Can you imagine anything better than playing for your country?”

But wasn’t it hard being a part of a word game all those years? Sluman shakes his head. “Not if you love golf,” he says. “If you love the game--and I really love golf--it’s enough just to be part of it.”

OK, Jeff. Who’s the best player never to have won twice after he has won a major?

I’ll give you a clue: He’ll be on the Ryder Cup team.