Practice May Make Perfect, but Colbert Prefers to Play

By THOMAS BONK

Oct. 10, 1997 12 AM PT

He had surgery for prostate cancer less than four months ago, but Jim Colbert said he thought it wouldn’t be too soon to get back out on the Senior PGA Tour once he started practicing again last month.

“I knew it would be tough for me to stay out the rest of the year,” said Colbert, who last played June 22. “You feel like, ‘Well, I can play here at home or I can play for a million dollars a week.’ ”

Well, if you put it that way. The 56-year-old from Las Vegas played an 18-hole special event in Bermuda this week, but his real return to the rigors of

the pro tour is scheduled Oct. 17-19 at the Hyatt Regency Maui Kaanapali Classic. Colbert also is entered in the Raley’s Gold Rush Classic and the Ralphs Senior Classic, Oct. 31-Nov. 2 at Wilshire Country Club.

Not long ago, Colbert said he thought he would wait until 1998 to come back, but reserved the right to change his mind.

“How many times do those fighters unretire?” he said.

His goal in playing the three tournaments on his schedule is to qualify for the $1.7-million Senior Tour Championship for the top 30 money winners Nov. 6-9. Colbert is 27th with $468,842, even though he hasn’t played since late June.

Colbert, who led the Senior PGA Tour money list in 1995 and 1996, says cancer surgery didn’t necessarily mellow him, but it did put him in touch with some feelings.

“Have I stepped back to appreciate life? No question about it. I asked myself things like, ‘How much money do you need? How can I maintain my lifestyle if I retire?’ Things like that. I can’t worry about those things right now, though. I’m just going to play. I’m just going to do it.”

PUT THAT OUT

Several prominent senior tour players smoke cigars on the course. After his experience, Colbert said he doesn’t think that’s such a smart idea.

“It’s no secret--smoking will kill you in a matter of time,” he said.

Colbert said he smoked until he was 42, until his wife, Marcia, said something to him that helped him decide to quit.

“She said, ‘I can always find you at the cocktail parties. I just listen for your cough.’ ”

Smoking, Colbert said, “just isn’t the thing to do.”

UPSTAGED AGAIN

M. Emmet Walsh is not only a widely known character actor, he also is a widely known golfer, at least at Westchester Golf Course, where he plays a regular Saturday morning money game.

Playing the 145-yard par-three fourth recently, Walsh selected a five-iron.

“I say we were playing from the back tees into a head wind,” Walsh said “I don’t want to admit to a club-head speed of 45 mph.”

He swung, the ball flew, bounced and then disappeared into the cup for a hole in one. Walsh attempted nonchalance.

“I gave this my usual I-do-this-all-time Oscar-winning performance,” said Walsh, who has six aces.

Two players later in Walsh’s fivesome, Bill Patton hit his iron shot into the hole, right on top of Walsh’s ball, for a second ace.

Said Walsh, “It’s so damn hard for a character actor to get top billing. I got put below the title again.”

TIGER-MARK SHOW

Now it can be told: Tiger Woods’ three biggest problems at the Ryder Cup were nervousness, lack of sleep and messing up the color-coordinated matching team outfits.

Woods, who was 1-3-1 at Valderrama in Sotogrande, Spain, appeared on “Golf Talk Live” on the Golf Channel, along with Mark O’Meara, this week. He said the earliest he got to bed was 10:30 p.m. because of all the functions the U.S. team was required to attend.

“It felt like I was in boot camp or something,” Woods said.

As for pressure, he said it didn’t hit until his Saturday afternoon foursomes match with Justin Leonard against Ignacio Garrido and Jesper Parnevik, which was halved Sunday.

“I was so nervous coming down the stretch,” Woods said. “I had not been that nervous in such a long time. It felt weird to be that nervous. . . . I finally realized I was at the Ryder Cup.”

He could have looked in his closet and figured that out. The U.S. team had a list of clothes to be worn each day, matching jackets, shirts, sweaters, caps, slacks and shoes. O’Meara said Woods kept knocking on the door to ask about the clothes.

“[He said] ‘Hey, now is it No. 2 slacks today or No. 4 shirt or what sports coat?’ ” O’Meara said. “And one time, when we were playing in the morning, I looked down and said ‘Hey, bud, you’ve got the wrong slacks on today. This is not navy. We’re supposed to wear navy blue. See these pants I have on? Look, yours have checks on them.’ ”

Said Woods, “Hey, man, they were blue.”

And so was the mood of the U.S. team afterward, the last color coordination of the Ryder Cup.

TIGER UPDATE

The Tiger factor, continued: With Woods in the field for a second consecutive year, the Skins Game may sell out for the Nov. 29-30 event at Rancho La Quinta. Admission is restricted to 10,000 each day.

Woods, Fred Couples, Tom Lehman and O’Meara will play in the $540,000 event.

DAVE MARR, 1933-1997

He won the 1965 PGA Championship and he was captain of the 1981 U.S. Ryder Cup team that was probably the greatest ever--Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Hale Irwin, Johnny Miller, Tom Watson and Ben Crenshaw--but Dave Marr probably was equally as well known in his later years as one of the few television commentators who stood out for wit, knowledge and fairness.

Marr, who died Sunday at 63 after a long battle with stomach cancer, was the first on-course commentator in the U.S. when he began at ABC in 1970. Terry Jastrow of Jack Nicklaus Productions, who called the shots in golf coverage at ABC for 22 years, said Marr was a record setter.

“He probably broadcast more major golf championships than anyone,” said Jastrow, who met Marr in Jastrow’s hometown of Midland, Texas, a few months after Marr had won the PGA at Laurel Valley Country Club.

“I shagged balls for him,” Jastrow said. “He was just the nicest man. Sadly, I never knew Bobby Jones, but along with Byron Nelson, Dave was probably the most beloved man I ever knew in golf. You could search the world and could never find one guy who didn’t like Dave Marr. If you could, I don’t want to meet him.”

HEAVY ON SEVE

For nearly eight years, beginning in 1983, Seve Ballesteros entrusted his golf game to his teacher--Mac O’Grady. Their association ended when O’Grady decided he couldn’t take Ballesteros anymore.

“I finally found someone more neurotic than me,” O’Grady said.

Anyway, O’Grady thought it was pretty funny when Ballesteros said he no longer wants to be the European Ryder Cup captain.

O’Grady, who called Ballesteros “emotionally bankrupt,” said the Spaniard really wants to be captain again. For Ballesteros to say otherwise doesn’t ring true, he said.

“That’s like asking a kid not to eat candy, a dog not to bark, a bee not to seek honey,” said O’Grady, who also said there is little chance that Ballesteros will be successful in getting his game back into shape to compete.

Said O’Grady, “Seve is a collapsed star, a black hole.”

MORE SEVE

While Ballesteros was busy saying Peter Oosterhuis should be Europe’s Ryder Cup captain in 1999, he also got his knuckles rapped by Ian Woosnam.

Woosnam criticized Ballesteros for poor communication. Woosnam played only two matches at Valderrama, a victory with Thomas Bjorn in the four-balls and an 8-and-7 loss to Couples in the singles. Woosnam said Ballesteros never discussed with him why he wasn’t playing the first day.

“I don’t quite understand why I didn’t play more matches,” Woosnam said. “Seve didn’t speak to me about it at all. He didn’t tell me anything. Seve didn’t talk to me about it even Sunday night.

“It wasn’t just one. It was everybody in the same boat. He had his own way of doing it and that was it.”

BIRDIES, BOGEYS, PARS

Doctors said that Bruce Devlin should make a complete recovery from having a cancerous kidney removed Oct. 3. The PGA Tour released a statement from Devlin, 59, saying doctors had told him the cancer was contained and had not gone outside his right kidney.

He isn’t officially entered, but Arnold Palmer is expected to play in the Ralphs Senior Classic. Among the other entries are Gil Morgan, David Graham, Graham Marsh, Dave Stockton, Gary Player, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Ray Floyd, John Bland and Dale Douglass.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

INFOSTAT: In the Money

Most money won in a year:

GOLFER, YEAR TOUR: MONEY

Hale Irwin, 1997 Senior: $2,023,864

Tiger Woods, 1997 PGA: $1,949,920

Tom Lehman, 1996 PGA: $1,780,159

Phil Mickelson, 1996 PGA: $1,697,799

Gil Morgan, 1997 Senior: $1,665,762

Greg Norman, 1995 PGA: $1,654,959

Jim Colbert, 1996 Senior: $1,627,890

Hale Irwin, 1996 Senior: $1,615,769