Cautious Green in Position to End His Lengthy Slump

By MARTIN BECK

March 15, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Hubert Green’s golf game left him a generation ago. One of the game’s best players in the 1970s, the ’77 U.S. Open was one of 16 tournaments he won during the decade of shag carpet.

He won his second major--the PGA Championship--in 1985, but has gone without a victory since then. Nearly 13 years later, Green is poised to end the slump. He shot a five-under-par 66 Saturday to take a one-stroke lead with one round to go at the Toshiba Senior Classic.

Green was pleased but not yet ready to announce a resurrection. “I hit the ball not quite as bad as I have over the last few years,” he said. “I lost it a couple of times today but the bad shots weren’t as bad as they’ve been most of the year. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”

He could feel plenty of heat from below. Jim Albus, the winner of the GTE Classic a month ago today, shot 65, the low round of the tournament, and sits a shot back in second place.

Mike McCullough, one of Friday’s co-leaders, is three strokes behind Green at six under, just ahead of an eight-player jam at five under that includes Gil Morgan, J.C. Snead, Jay Sigel and Bob Eastwood. Six players, including Jim Colbert, Hale Irwin, Lee Trevino and David Graham, are five shots off the lead.

It’s setting up as a competitive race to the finish at Newport Beach Country Club, and Green has a head start, albeit a shaky one. He said he hit three solid shots Friday on the way to a 67 and did only a little better Saturday.

But his mistakes didn’t hurt too much, and his touch around and on the greens made up for plenty. He needed only 23 putts--a statistic helped by his two chip-ins for birdie from the fringe--apparently having little trouble with the tricky Poa annua greens.

“I like the worst greens possible,” Green said. “When they’re perfect like pool tables everybody putts good. I’m jealous. I want to be the only one to putt good out here.”

No one high on the leaderboard needed fewer putts than Green, but it was Albus who had the round of the day. With a six-foot putt for eagle on the par-five 15th, Albus briefly moved alone into the lead. He then bogeyed the par-four 16th and birdied the par-five 18th to complete his 65.

Others were struggling a bit more. Snead, who shared the lead Friday, had a disastrous front nine, with bogeys on four consecutive holes and five of six to fall to one under for the tournament.

Snead’s back nine was almost a mirror image, however. He turned it around with four consecutive birdies and five in six holes. But he bogeyed the easy par-five 18th and stomped off to the range to try to solve his problems with an erratic driver.

“I told my caddie that we were going to shoot five under on the back nine,” Snead said on his way to the putting green, “and I got to five under then I three-putted the last hole. That really frosted me.”

The three players who shared the lead with Snead Friday had varying levels of success Saturday.

* McCullough, the former journeyman PGA pro, shot 70, managing to hang on despite shaky iron play. After losing two strokes on the front nine, McCullough got three back on the back to get into third place.

* Thomas, the former club pro and seafood wholesaler, played solidly but took an unlucky double bogey on the par-four 14th when his drive was lost in a palm tree. His birdie on 18 left him even for the round, five under for the tournament.

* David Lundstrom, the Senior Tour qualifying tournament medalist, shot 74, probably taking himself out of contention, seven back of Green.

For Green to win, he will have to maintain his tenuous confidence in his game. He said he tried something new on the range Friday that has helped slow his swing, but he’s still not always comfortable over the ball.

That’s not a pleasant feeling, especially for someone who won three consecutive PGA Tour events in 1976 and has 19 PGA victories to his name.

“It hasn’t been as much fun as I’d like it to be--it’s not just the winning,” said Green, who twice finished third last year as a Senior Tour rookie. “I’ve been working pretty hard on my golf game and not yielding results. When you plant crops and you don’t get any yield from it, it’s not a lot of fun.

“And I’ve dug a lot of holes.”

Still, Green is confident that he is finally on the right track.

“I know what it takes to win,” Green said. “If I play solid golf tomorrow and don’t win, hey, c’est la vie.

“It’s not life or death if I win. I just want to play good consistent golf. If I do that, things will take care of themselves.”

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The Leaders

TOSHIBA SENIOR CLASSIC

At Newport Beach CC--Par 71

Hubert Green: 67-66--133 -9

Jim Albus: 69-65--134 -8

Mike McCullough: 66-70--136 -6

Bob Duval: 70-67--137 -5