All Systems Go as Palmer Counts Down

He’s 69, he has shot five rounds under par all year, he hasn’t finished better than 47th and he hasn’t played a tournament since the second week of August.

As if it matters?

Not when you’re talking about Arnold Palmer. When the $1.1-million Pacific Bell Senior Classic begins today at Wilshire Country Club, the big news isn’t that Palmer hasn’t won a Senior PGA Tour event in 10 years, it’s that he’s still playing.

In the last seven weeks, Palmer underwent a series of radiation treatments for prostate cancer, an illness for which he had surgery 21 months ago. Palmer’s pro-am tee time Thursday coincided with 77-year-old John Glenn’s shuttle launch, which Palmer wistfully pointed out.

“I would give my tee time up to be in his place and go where he’s going,” Palmer said.

Actually, it’s a good thing Palmer is going where he’s going, which will be the first tee at 10:50 a.m. today. It probably will take at least four or five weeks until he is fully back, but Palmer insisted he feels fine, or at least much better.

But he said his energy level and his ball-striking aren’t what he wants them to be.

“I’m pretty good early on, but as the day goes on, I sort of weaken toward the end. I hope I can sustain it all this week.”

Last year, Palmer shot 80-72-75 and finished 71st on the 6,575-yard layout in the midst of Hancock Park. Gil Morgan managed to defend his title with a closing 65 and a one-shot victory over George Archer.

Morgan is back again, looking for a third consecutive victory at Wilshire, but Hale Irwin is taking the week off. Jay Sigel is the only other player in the top 10 on the money list who isn’t playing.

For the Senior PGA Tour, right in the middle of a transition from a nostalgia tour, the chances to see Palmer in competition are running out. Palmer has hinted for the last several years that he will cut down on his tournament schedule, especially if he isn’t playing well, but he’s still out there grinding.

The Pac Bell is Palmer’s 13th senior event this year, the same number he played last year after his surgery. He said it’s no secret why he continues to play.

“I enjoy what I do,” he said. “I suppose that’s the major thing that keeps me going. I enjoy my life. I don’t want to stop it. I just want to continue on and on.”

But problems keep getting in his way. Last week, doctors discovered that Palmer’s wife, Winnie, had ovarian cancer. She underwent her first treatment Monday in Orlando, Fla., and Palmer said they expect a full recovery.

Palmer urged continued fund-raising efforts for cancer research.

“When you think that there probably isn’t a person out on a golf course in America today that hasn’t had some brush with cancer, either through family, their own experiences or whatever, it puts definitive urgency on research and further development to finding a cure or at least a situation that we all know what to do to prevent cancer. And that, I think, is very important.”

How Palmer plays anymore isn’t really that important, except to him. But what more does he have to prove? He won 60 PGA Tour events--four Masters, two British Opens, one U.S. Open--and 10 Senior PGA Tour events in a career that began 43 years ago.

And he’s still playing. Palmer finished his pro-am round Thursday afternoon at Wilshire, posed for pictures with his amateur partners, signed some autographs and taped a television spot for cancer research.

Palmer said he’s glad to be playing in Los Angeles.

“The fans here have been great to me over the years,” he said. “It’s great to be back and it’s great to be feeling good.”

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Tournament at a Glance

* WHAT: $1.1-million Pacific Bell Senior Classic

* WHERE: Wilshire Country Club

* WHEN: Today through Sunday

* TICKETS: $12 daily

* PARKING: $5 at Pan Pacific Park, Third Street between La Brea and Fairfax avenues, shuttle to Wilshire

CARD GAME: The stakes are high for seniors trying to keep their playing privileges for next year. Page 9