Lord Byron Says Sir Justin Ready to Join Sport’s Royalty

The weather this week in Roanoak, Texas, down on his Fairway Ranch, has been, well, hotter than Justin Leonard on the last day of the British Open.

But 85-year-old Byron Nelson thought it would be cool to greet Leonard at Royal Oaks Country Club in Dallas and welcome his fellow Texan home as the newest British Open champion.

“He’s unusual,” Nelson said of Leonard, 25. “You don’t have to explain that to anybody. He was the best 15-year-old to

21-year-old golfer I had ever seen. Where he goes from here. . . . I think he’s going to be great, even if you never can tell fully.”

Nelson, who won the Masters in 1937 and 1942, the U.S. Open in 1939 and the PGA Championship in 1940 and 1945, said Leonard has no weaknesses as a player.

“He’s an excellent iron player, he hits it so solidly and he gets the proper distance,” Nelson said. “It seems as if he’s always close to the hole. And can he putt.”

Nelson said he saw Leonard play for the first time when Leonard was 15. Leonard represents something of a new breed on the PGA Tour and total departure from the way it used to be, Nelson said.

“Not too long ago, it used to be that the major winners were all older, more experienced,” he said. “That goes with my time too. You had to learn to play when you got on tour. Now, these guys are polished and experienced even before they start the tour. They’ve already learned to play and to compete.”

Leonard belongs in that group. In fact, if he keeps progressing, his toughest task may be reduced to a two-legged one.

“Tiger,” Nelson said. “His job now is to beat Tiger Woods. That’s the toughest work he has right now. Oh, sure, you can make a lot of money, but you have to really earn it.”

TIGER UPDATE

Woods on the course is like money in the bank . . . in fact, exactly like money in the bank.

You can add it up. With the $17,362 he took home for his tie for 24th at the British Open, Woods is only $1,764 short of Tom Lehman’s single-season PGA Tour prize money record of $1,780,159.

Woods has made $1,778,395--in only 14 events. Lehman played 22 to set the record last year.

CALLING COREY?

Corey Pavin wants to play in the Ryder Cup, but he isn’t going to be part of the U.S. team unless Tom Kite uses a captain’s pick to select him.

Pavin showed signs of breaking out of a yearlong slump with two rounds in the 60s at the British Open. With only a month left until the Ryder Cup team is announced, Pavin has to hope Kite chooses experience--and that he is playing well enough to warrant Kite’s interest.

“He wants me on the team, I’ve known that for a year,” Pavin said. “He’s got two picks, but they’ve got to be good picks. If I’m not playing well, I don’t think he’ll pick me.”

Kite has not said who he will choose, but players not in the top 10 in the points standings with a chance include Fred Couples, Tom Watson, Payne Stewart, Paul Stankowski, David Duval, John Cook and Pavin.

Of that group, Pavin is the only one not in the top 20.

Half the top 10--Woods, Leonard, Jim Furyk, Scott Hoch and Tommy Tolles--have no Ryder Cup experience. The only players who have been on at least two Ryder Cup teams are Davis Love III and Mark O’Meara.

“The odds are Tom will pick two experienced players, but it’s hard to tell,” Pavin said.

SENIORS: HERE’S JOHNNY

Wanted: someone to pump some life into the Senior PGA Tour.

At first glance, there couldn’t be a better candidate to answer this ad than Johnny Miller. He’s bright, he’s articulate, he’s the 1973 U.S. Open champion, the 1976 British Open champion and, best of all, he’s 50.

That makes him eligible to play the senior tour, which has been running short on new, big names in recent years--not counting Hale Irwin, who came on board as a part-timer in 1995. Miller turned 50 in April and the good news is he’s playing. The bad news is that he’s planning to play only five or six events this year and the same number in 1997.

The reasons are his knees are bad, he doesn’t have a burning desire, and he already has a job, as a commentator with NBC.

“I think I’ll give the senior tour a little bit of a shot in the arm,” Miller said in Park City, Utah, where he makes his debut today in the Franklin Quest Championship. “I don’t think they need me. I’m not the cake, I’m a little bit of the frosting. I’m playing enough to let people know I’m still around.”

He said he will donate senior tour prize money to junior golf.

Miller was at his height at the same time Jack Nicklaus was the undisputed king of golf. They each won 16 tournaments from 1973 through 1976. In 1974, Miller won eight times, the first to do it since Sam Snead won 11 times in 1950. Only four others have won more than eight in a year. Miller’s career was shortened because of leg problems, but he also had putting problems. He said he still does.

“I have classic yips with my putting,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I left the game. My putting wasn’t good and my legs were bothering me.”

He uses a long-handled putter now, a concession more to his putting problems than his age.

“I was ready for the term senior. Getting older is cool. It’s weird, though. I don’t feel like my age. Mentally, I feel younger.”

The senior tour probably can use a little dose of that.

DALY UPDATE

John Daly, who walked off the course at the U.S. Open five weeks ago, walked back on it this week at the Greater Hartford Open. Last week, Daly got ready by working with Mission Hills pro Chipper Cecil at Daly’s home in Rogers, Ark. Still dieting, Daly is down to 198 pounds, the lightest he has been in six years.

On the course, Daly has a long way to go. He has won only $76,248 so far this year, putting him No. 146 on the money list. He shot a one-over 71 Thursday.

LPGA: GOOD MOVE

How to win a golf tournament? Simple, move to Minnesota. At least that’s the way Michele Redman did it. A few months after moving from Florida to Plymouth, Minn., she won for the first time in her six-year LPGA career.

“I love the lakes, I took up snowmobiling and I picked up a sponsorship with Target, so it made sense to move,” Redman said.

Redman, 32, had never finished higher than third, never led a tournament after three rounds and never played with Annika Sorenstam before the final round of the JAL Big Apple Classic. “I led the whole week, and I thought if I didn’t win, people would ask, ‘Why?’ ”

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Jack Kramer says he wants his South Course at Los Serranos in Chino Hills to be the longest in Southern California, and once a new set of tees is completed in a month or so, he’ll have the longest in the state. From the new black tees, the layout will be 7,508 yards. Par will remain 74. The state’s longest is Ruby Hill in Pleasanton at 7,448 yards; the longest in Southern California is the South Course at Ironwood in Palm Desert at 7,268.

For what it’s worth, Woods, Leonard and Ernie Els have won five of the last seven PGA Tour events. . . . The top five players in the Vardon Trophy standings for the lowest scoring average: Woods 68.77, Nick Price 68.79, Steve Elkington 69.52, Jesper Parnevik 69.58 and Lehman 69.62. . . . Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur champion Craig Steinberg of Van Nuys, California Amateur and California Open champion Jason Gore of Valencia and former Pacific Coast Amateur and California Amateur champion Mark Johnson of Helendale will represent the SCGA at the 31st Pacific Coast Amateur Championship, July 29-Aug. 1 at Makena Golf Course in Maui, Hawaii. Steinberg became only the third four-time winner in the 98-year history of the SCGA Amateur when he defeated Gore by one shot at Lakeside Golf Club. Steinberg, who also won in 1988, 1991 and 1992, joins Paul Hunter, who won five times between 1908 and 1924, and former Lakeside member Johnny Dawson, who won championships 1942, 1944, 1945 and 1952.