Morgan Undergoes a Major Change

Let’s see. The Golden Boys Honor Roll goes something like this . . .

There was Lee Trevino, coming out to get away from the “flat-bellies” and win some Senior PGA Tour swag.

And Jack Nicklaus, the reluctant senior, sure of over-50 dominance.

And Raymond Floyd and Hale Irwin, anointed on their 50th birthdays as the new senior kings.

Also among those who have turned 50: Gil Morgan.

Never a star, Morgan was good enough to earn more than $5.2 million in 22 seasons on the PGA Tour, and good enough to win seven times, including the Los Angeles Open in 1978.

He played on a couple of Ryder Cup teams, and led the 1976 PGA, ’83 Masters and ’92 U.S. Open after two rounds. He was good enough to

be the first U.S. Open player to reach 10 under par, in 1992 at Pebble Beach, and then the first to be 12 under. And he did it in 43 holes before fading to 13th.

He was good enough to have earned $259,776 last year on the PGA Tour, ranking 85th, and smart enough after turning 50 on Sept. 25 to waste no time joining the senior tour. He won the Ralph’s Senior Classic at Wilshire Country Club 11 days later.

He won the Tradition in early April, the first time he was eligible to play a senior tour major.

Morgan, who has a doctor of optometry degree but has never practiced, goes into this week’s PGA Senior Championship a contender for the Grand Slam, elder-statesman division, and now a name with people who listen to the Beach Boys on KRTH-FM (101.1), which is something he never was when their music was No. 1 on the charts.

Not bad for a new/old guy just getting the hang of things.

“I’ve played a few of these courses in the past, like this week’s [PGA National at Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.],” said Morgan, whose 70 Thursday left him three shots behind leader John Bland of South Africa. “I played in the [1979] Ryder Cup here.

“But most of it is new, and you’ve got to get used to scheduling transportation, housing, finding where the golf course is located. Just getting to the golf course is new.”

Now there are new courses to figure out, new friends to make, new problems to sort out, such as how do you get from a media day at Wilshire to the Newport Beach Country Club for the Toshiba Senior Classic? Morgan sought directions, got three different routes--late-afternoon traffic, you know--and somehow got to the site to finish third.

“I figure I’ll play about 25 weeks this year,” said Morgan, who included a week with the tour kids at the Players Championship, where he finished 53rd, in his list of things to do. “That’s maybe half the tour schedule, and maybe next year I’ll play the other half and then I’ll know. It’s about a two-year deal.”

Along the way, he has amassed $415,204 since January, second only to David Graham’s $437,920. And he has performed a major exorcism, at the Tradition, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

He led every round, from six under par, to 12 under to 17 under and had a five-shot lead going into the final day, playing in 40-degree temperatures in the Valley of the Missing Sun in a stocking cap.

On the last day, he was nervous. Perhaps thinking of that ’92 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach?

“Well, I really was thinking of [Greg] Norman in the Masters,” he said. “I was worried about those last-day demons.”

Norman’s final-day collapse to Nick Faldo last year knows no tour bounds, it seems.

And on the first hole, there it was: Isao Aoki on the green, with a five-foot putt for birdie; John Jacobs with a 12-footer.

Morgan had missed the green.

“Here I’m looking at a bogey, and they’re looking at birdies,” he says. “I had to pitch over a depression, to a green going away from me.”

He pitched to within three feet and made his putt. Aoki and Jacobs missed, and Morgan’s lead got no lower than four shots the rest of the day.

“He no come, I win,” said Aoki, who finished at 16 under, which is usually good enough. Morgan’s 22-under 266 was the second-lowest score in a Senior PGA Tour major.

And now he is a major winner, with accompanying fanfare this week. He’s enjoying the celebrity.

“It was my goal: to play well in a major, to win a tournament,” he said. “This is kind of fun, for a change. And if you win one, I guess there’s pressure on you to win another. You want to win another one.”

He’s still learning the senior game, which is different from that of the PGA Tour. The courses are shorter, the roughs are easier and the players make concessions to age.

“They’re better around the greens,” Morgan said. “They get up and down when they miss greens. Some of the courses are taking the driver out of my hands, and I’m having to play a little differently.”

Well, not totally. The seniors acknowledged their younger brethren had a bit of an advantage at the Tradition.

“A short hitter has no chance here,” Trevino said.

Said Irwin: “We’re talking about guys who aren’t just long. They’re very long. They all bomb the ball.”

Morgan did, playing the par fives in 15 under, and finishing the tournament with an eagle.

Good enough to win a major.

OUT OF THE WOODS

Where once there were two types of PGA Tour tournaments, majors and others, now the events are those with Tiger Woods and those without.

Woods will not play again until the tour moves to Texas next month, and players will be faced with winning what some will consider watered-down events.

This week, it’s at watered-down Hilton Head Island, S.C., where Tom Lehman--last year’s PGA Tour player of the year--said, “It’s a ‘what about us?’ kind of thing.”

Commentary on Woods’ absence is starting to sound like something out of a tag-team wrestling match.

“It looks like he’s trying to set himself up to win a Grand Slam,” Phil Mickelson said. “It’s going to be up to a lot of guys to stop him.”

WANTED MAN

Out of Westport, Conn., comes word from the Sports Marketing Letter that Woods is expected to be among the “Ten Most Wanted” sports spokesmen, and that he is a definite growth industry.

“He’s going to break into the top-10 list big time,” said Brian Murphy, the publication’s editor. “He’s looking at no less than No. 5, that’s for sure.”

That means about $500 million to $1 billion over the next 10 years, quite a jump from the estimated $60 million from Nike and Titleist bestowed on him when he turned pro.

GETTING AWAY . . . NOT

With their tour on hiatus for a week, where did the LPGA players spend their time off?

At least seven--Emilee Klein, Vicki Goetze-Ackerman, Stefania Croce, Amy Benz, Mitzi Edge, Maggie Will-Halpin and Sue Thomas--were spotted in the gallery at the Masters.

From there, it was just a quick jaunt to this week’s tournament at Murrells Islet, S.C.

THE OTHER SIDE

Inside Golf magazine says the National Assn. of Left-Handed Golfers has set up a web site, https://www.dca.net/golf/index.html, to provide information to those whose credo is: You’re not on the wrong side of the ball anymore.

You can bet that there will be tributes to left-handers Mickelson, Bob Charles and Russ Cochran.

SHORT PUTTS

The Arnold Palmer Course at PGA West comes back to the Bob Hope Classic foursome for 1998, joining Indian Wells, La Quinta and Bermuda Dunes and replacing Indian Ridge, where it has been decided that home construction inhibits gallery movement. Tamarisk Country Club will replace La Quinta in 1999. . . .

Events: The Seahorse Classic tournament, benefiting the Associates Center for Minimally Invasive Surgery for children, is being played Monday at Palos Verdes Golf Club. Details: (310) 541-3028. . . . The Classic 100 Golf Marathon, May 19 at Stoneridge Country Club in Poway, with 40 golfers, each playing more than 100 holes in support of the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Details: (619) 231-1941. . . . Cal State Bakersfield Track and Field tournament at Seven Oaks Country Club in Bakersfield, benefiting the school’s program. Details: (805) 664-2347.