Palmer’s Cancer Helped Save Colbert

In the first round of a Senior PGA Tour event in Alpharetta, Ga., Jim Colbert was in the same group as Bob Murphy. That isn’t unusual, mainly because Colbert and Murphy are two of the closest players on tour.

What was unusual was that all during the round and then later at a party Murphy hosted that night, Colbert never mentioned he had cancer. Colbert, 56, never said he would have surgery three days later.

“He just didn’t let on at all,” Murphy said. “He seemed to be relaxed. He was talking. He was the normal Jim.”

What is becoming all too normal for the senior tour players is the incidence of prostate cancer,

which is what Colbert discovered he had three weeks ago. Colbert, a two-time senior tour player of the year, is the second prominent senior golfer to undergo surgery for prostate cancer.

Arnold Palmer discovered he had prostate cancer in January and told his fellow players the news at a banquet the same night. Colbert, who was in the audience, had been stunned by Palmer’s disclosure.

Dr. Lester Klein of the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, who performed the surgery on Colbert at the clinic’s Green Hospital on Monday, said Colbert had been alarmed by Palmer’s situation.

“If Jim hadn’t had this, if the tumor had gone undetected for three or four years, it might have been too late,” Klein said. “You might say he saved his life by coming in and having it done routinely.”

Colbert had a routine blood test for prostate cancer done three weeks ago. Called a PSI, the test showed a slightly elevated reading. Klein suggested a biopsy, which was positive. Colbert sought a second opinion from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, which confirmed Klein’s diagnosis.

So by the time Colbert teed it up at the du Maurier on June 12, he knew he had prostate cancer. Somehow, Colbert shot rounds of 65-65-70-71 for a 13-under-par 271 and finished second to Jack Kiefer by two shots.

“Imagine that this man knew he had cancer and had back-to-back rounds of 65-65,” Klein said. “His ability to focus to the task is professional. He’s doing that now.”

Colbert remained mum about his condition last weekend when he tied for 17th at the Nationwide Championship. Hale Irwin, who finished second behind winner Graham Marsh, said the news came as a complete surprise.

“No one knew about it,” said Irwin, whose father died of prostate cancer.

“Those that think it can’t happen to them, I feel sorry for them because it can.”

Colbert did not want his condition to be a distraction to his peers, Klein said Colbert told him, so he kept it to himself.

Knowing his golf buddy as well as he does, Murphy said he expects Colbert, eighth on the money list with $468,842, already is planning his comeback.

“He’s probably listening to everything they’re telling him--like how long he will be out--and he’s cutting that in half,” Murphy said.

DALY UPDATE

John Daly is spending a week undergoing tests and being evaluated at a sports science testing center at Lake Nona near Orlando, Fla. Callaway Golf is picking up the tab for Daly’s stay at the LGE Sports Science Inc. center, run by three sports science and fitness experts: Jim Loehr, Jack Groppel and Pat Etcheberry.

Loehr, a sports psychologist, has worked with such players as Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Nick Faldo, Ernie Els, Lee Janzen, Martina Navratilova and Gabriela Sabatini. Groppel, a fitness and nutrition specialist, has worked with Barbara Bush, Margaret Thatcher and Mary Lou Retton. Etcheberry, a fitness expert, has had such clients as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Faldo, Els and Brad Faxon.

Daly’s progress will be studied at the end of a week to decide on the next step in his comeback. He was admitted to the Betty Ford Center in late March after an alcoholic episode in Florida but came back May 29 to play in the Memorial tournament. He also played the Kemper Open the next week, making the cut both times.

However, his last appearance was an abbreviated one. Daly walked off the course at the U.S. Open midway through the second round at Congressional. He later cited mental and physical exhaustion.

MORE DALY

Callaway Golf pulled its Daly ads after the Open incident. Considering the players’ prevailing opinion that Daly should have completed his round before withdrawing, maybe Callaway should change its Daly ad slogan from “Keep it straight” to “Stay on course.”

WIRED

Els won the Buick Classic at Westchester Country Club last Sunday after having led from the first round. He also won the Buick in 1996, which he also did in the same fashion.

It’s the first time a player has defended a title, winning both times after leading wire to wire, since Tom Watson won the MONY Tournament of Champions in 1979 and 1980.

HALE FELLOW

Irwin is probably the kind of guy who instinctively knows which teller line at the bank is going to be the quickest. He needed only 11 senior tour events to pass $1 million (actually $1,075,831)-- breaking his earliest-to-a-million record of 13 tournaments set last year.

CAN’T CUT IT

For what it’s worth, Vijay Singh has made 39 consecutive cuts. He hasn’t missed a cut since the 1995 PGA Championship. The record for cuts made in a row is 53 by Tom Kite in 1980-82.

During his streak, Singh has made nearly $1.6 million and won once, four weeks ago at the Memorial. Singh won’t miss the cut this week at Memphis either. He isn’t playing.

THE WRIGHT WAY

In 1958, Mickey Wright won the U.S. Women’s Open, and she won it again in 1959.

Wright was 25 when she tried to win a third U.S. Women’s Open in a row in 1960 at Worcester Country Club in Massachusetts. She led after each of the first three rounds but shot 82 on the last day and wound up fifth.

The 61-year-old San Diego native had a Hall of Fame career that included 82 victories and 13 major titles, but she never forgot her attempt at three consecutive U.S. Open titles.

“It was the worst experience I ever had in golf,” Wright said. “It’s the only tournament where I had been a leader and absolutely blew it.”

At Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club in suburban Portland, Ore., in two weeks, Annika Sorenstam gets her chance to win three in a row. Wright said she hopes Sorenstam succeeds.

“I believe she has an excellent chance of doing it,” Wright said. “Even though it is a lot of pressure, if she can tune everything else out and play her own game, there is no reason why she cannot do it.”

Wright came back in 1961 and won her third U.S. Open in four years.

By the way, Wright earned a total of $3,420 for her first two U.S. Open triumphs. Sorenstam has made $387,500 in her two Open victories--more than Wright made in her 26-year career.

FYI

The USGA received a record 2,918 entries for this week’s U.S. Senior Open at Olympia Fields, Ill. Jim Stefanich, a member of the Professional Bowlers Hall of Fame, qualified. Obviously, golf is right down his alley.

LPGA: PENNY’S BACK

It has been a long road back for Penny Hammel, whose victory in the Rochester Invitational last weekend was her first since 1991. Hammel, 35, won LPGA tournaments in 1985 and 1989, but then she lost her motivation. The youngest of her five brothers, Lee, contracted the AIDS virus and died at 27 in 1992. Hammel was devastated.

“Up until then, golf was everything, but after, it was like, ‘There’s a lot more to life,’ ” Hammel said.

From 1992 through 1995, Hammel won a total of $69,247, but she decided to put herself fully back into golf last year. Hammel made $259,359 and had her best results since 1991.

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

The second California Women’s Championship will be played July 28-30 at Poppy Hills in Pebble Beach. The 54-hole stroke play event is open to amateurs whose primary residence is California and is sponsored by all six California women’s golf associations. Details: (415) 361-8688. . . . The Chuck Muncie Youth Foundation and the Golf Group of America is sponsoring a junior caddie program at Rancho Park. Details: (800) 984-9633. . . . Golf magazine awarded its Peter A. Bonanni Scholarship to Yusef S. Beckles, 17, who received $2,500 to help pay for tuition at Woodbury University in Burbank. Beckles was a student at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Students and active in the LPGA Urban Youth Golf Program. . . . Smriti Mehra is not only an LPGA rookie, but the only player from India on the tour. She said many in the United States have some wrong impressions about India. Said Mehra: “We are a very modern country. We even have golf.”