Field Is Again Left Breathing Exhaust of a Worn-Out Irwin

Hale Irwin says he’s getting worn out. Must be from lifting trophies or carrying all those bags of money back to his hotel room.

“Yeah, tell Hale to ease up,” Larry Nelson said. “If he doesn’t, we’re going to have to start handicapping him.”

For Irwin, golf’s first $2-million man, the first round of the Ralphs Senior Classic was sort of like a stroll through a bank lobby, waiting for somebody to walk up and hand him a check.

Irwin invested his time wisely Friday at Wilshire Country Club, which he toured in only 63 shots. His eight-under-par score was a course record, the third time this year he has done that. It broke the Wilshire record of 64, set two years ago by some guy named Irwin.

That’s sort of the way it has been going this year for Irwin. He’s not really competing against himself, it simply seems that way sometimes.

There’s one more record directly in front of Irwin’s golf cart. That would be a 10th Senior PGA Tour victory this year, and that’s something Irwin insists he’s not thinking about.

“I’m just trying to focus on now,” he said. “That takes me to tomorrow, and if I have a successful round then, that gets me to Sunday . . . then you start counting.”

Meanwhile, Irwin has begun a countdown to the end of the season when he can put his clubs in the garage for a while. He’s plain tuckered out, probably from making all those victory speeches.

Dave Stockton, whose 64 put him one shot off the lead, scoffed at Irwin’s plans to hit the recliner at the sign of the first falling leaf.

“Yeah, sure. He’s probably going to play the winter circuit. Are you kidding? If you were him, why would you want this to stop?

“Where Hale is right now, he’s got all the parts working. All he has to do is tee it up. Its the rest of us who are hoping this thing ends. Let him take a couple of months off. Maybe he’ll forget something.”

Irwin is not infallible. He three-putted the second hole for bogey. Of course, he also had one string of three straight birdies, then an even better one that featured five straight birdies.

The last one was on No. 13, a 30-foot putt with four feet of break that Irwin sent curling into the hole.

He seemed relieved afterward, probably because he’s got a lot on his mind. The Irwins are building a house in Scottsdale, Ariz. His daughter is getting married in January. He has more money than he can count. And those 63s can sure put a strain on you.

“I’m sure some people say, ‘Gosh, you shot 63 and it didn’t look too hard.’ Yeah, but there’s been a lot of work going in there to do it.”

Most of the work going on Friday was figuring how to handle Wilshire’s sneaky-fast greens, where more than one golf ball struck too hard might have set a land-speed record.

Of course, not everybody had all that much trouble. David Graham must have decided the best way to avoid problems on the green was avoid putting entirely. This is just what he did on the 188-yard 13th, which he aced with a six-iron.

Twenty-six players broke par and even though Irwin’s round was the best, he’s being closely pursued. Jim Colbert turned in a 65, his best round since he returned to the tour three weeks ago.

Nelson began pursuit of his first senior title with a 66, matched by Rocky Thompson. Defending champion Gil Morgan is at 67, along with Graham Marsh, Leonard Thompson, George Archer and Charles Coody.

Nelson was on the verge of something a lot better than a 66, but he had trouble figuring out the greens, and that translated into missed putts. He missed five times inside six feet.

“I just didn’t ever seem to get the speed and the break right,” said Nelson, who made two-footers for birdies on Nos. 1 and 16.

“I got all my two-footers down,” he said.

The trick to beating Wilshire’s greens is to keep the ball on the correct side of the hole. Nelson is figuring that out, but Stockton knew it already. He played Wilshire every Monday when he was at USC and knows the place like the back of his clubface.

Nowhere was Stockton’s local knowledge more useful than on the greens, where his seven-birdie round was built.

“I made a million miles of putts,” he said.

Stockton, looking for his second victory this year, is using a new putter and he put it to good use. He made an 18-footer on No. 1, and a 16-footer on No. 2, but he was only getting warmed up for a 70-footer on No. 4.

Stockton also made another 18-footer, two more 16-footers, with a little two-footer on No. 11 mixed in.

By the time he got to No. 12, Stockton was five under and took a look at the scoreboard. Irwin was eight under. Stockton said something to himself.

“Well, at least I’ve got something to shoot at,” Stockton said.

As usual, it’s Irwin. Come get me, that’s the message Irwin is sending. But Stockton has one of his own for Irwin.

“It’s more important for me to win my second than for him to win his 10th,” Stockton said.

But who’s counting?

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The Leaders

Scores Friday from the first round of the $1-million Ralphs Senior Classic on the par-71 (35-36), 6,575-yard Wilshire Country Club course:

Hale Irwin: 31-32--63

Dave Stockton: 31-33--64

Jim Colbert: 33-32--65

Larry Nelson: 33-33--66

Rocky Thompson: 35-31--66

Leonard Thompson: 34-33--67

Charles Coody: 32-35--67

Gil Morgan: 32-35--67

George Archer: 34-33--67

Graham Marsh: 34-33--67

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COMPLETE SCORES: C12