Alternate Finds Place in Field

Gary Klahn woke up at his Agoura Hills home Monday morning, called Riviera Country Club and found that he still was on the outside looking in at the U.S. Senior Open.

Klahn, who plays the Senior Series Tour, a feeder circuit for the Senior PGA Tour, had taken first alternate status when he shot a 72, then won a five-way playoff on June 29 at Bellerive Country Club in St. Louis, but he had to wait and wonder if somebody was going to drop out of the Open.

To kill time Monday, Klahn worked his way through traffic on the Ventura and San Diego freeways to practice at Riviera, and when he got to the course, he found he was in the tournament.

Tommy Aaron had dropped out because of a sprained ankle.

“It’s kind of a dream to qualify in my own hometown,” said Klahn, who will be paired with Bob Charles and Jim Albus at 1:40 p.m. on Thursday.

“Alternates usually don’t get in, you know.”

It will be the second Senior Open for Klahn, who qualified two years ago at Canterbury in Beachwood, Ohio, but missed the cut.

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Defending U.S. Senior Open champion Graham Marsh last played Riviera in 1977, but he’s familiar with the travail the golf course has gone through in recent years.

“Given the problem that they’ve had here, everything I’ve heard . . . it was refreshing to find [the greens] in such excellent condition,” he said after a Monday practice round.

He rated them an “8 1/2 on a scale of 10,” adding, “They’re very true and they hold well. They’re going to be very good this week.”

The rough is another story. Because of course alterations--some trees have been taken out to allow sun through--the 3 1/2-inch rough varies.

“It’s thick in some areas, sparse in others,” Marsh said. “Luck will be a factor. It’s not like in other places where it’s so dense all the way around. But if you hit in the fairway, it shouldn’t matter.”

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In an attempt to dry out the greens, a machine that blows air at the ground was hooked up by the 18th green Monday. USGA official Tom Meeks, who sets the pins for the tournament, said the greens at Riviera were about 11 on the Stimpmeter, extremely fast.

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Three players in the Senior Open field have won the Los Angeles Open at Riviera: Dave Stockton in 1974, Hale Irwin in 1976 and Gil Morgan in 1978.