No One Can Stop Inman at Wilshire

By THOMAS BONK

Oct. 30, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

By now, we know that there are certain rules in golf that will never change. A birdie is always one shot under par. The fairway is a better place to be than the rough. A golf ball is round, and a flagstick is straight. You can never stop Joe Inman at Wilshire Country Club, you can only hope to contain him.

There was no containing Inman this week at Wilshire, where the excitable, talkative, 52-year-old from Marietta, Ga., won the $1.4-million SBC Senior Classic for the third year in a row.

“Fantastic, unbelievable, I’ll tell you, it’s just been amazing,” said Inman.

Actually, those are about as few words as Inman can manage at one time. A walking monologue, Inman lit up a gray, gloomy, drippy Sunday afternoon at Wilshire with a shining six-under 65 that was good enough for a three-shot victory over Larry Nelson.

Inman’s 54-hole total of 198 earned him $210,000, but it did not prevent Nelson, the senior tour’s leader, from virtually guaranteeing himself the season money title. Nelson’s 65 gave him second place, and he needs to finish anywhere but last in next week’s Senior Tour Championship to wrap up the title.

Nelson played the weekend in 13 under 64-65, but couldn’t make up the 73 he started with on Friday.

“I caught everybody but Joe,” Nelson said. “He just didn’t do any wrong.”

At Wilshire, Inman has done absolutely no wrong. Let’s check the figures. He has won three times on the senior tour, and they have all occurred at Wilshire. The worst score he ever shot at Wilshire is 68. He made only one bogey all week.

“He is so confident here,” said Nelson, who was second for the seventh time this year. “This golf course this week kind of favored someone who could hit those little wedges and not get any spin on them.”

Stewart Ginn was third after a 68, six shots behind Inman. Jim Thorpe was fourth at eight-under 205, and Tom Kite and Christy O’Connor tied for fifth at 206.

As confident as Inman seems on his favorite track, he had a difficult time keeping everyone else behind. He was only one-under through the front nine, and Ginn was within one shot. Nelson was two-under through nine and trailed Inman by two.

Even then, Inman nodded because he expected it all.

“You knew this was going to be a hard day,” he said.

It was also a lucky day for him. Nelson and Inman each began the back side with birdies at 10. At 11, Inman’s seven-iron second shot came to rest just outside the top of a bunker. He then chipped in from 25 feet to birdie.

“That ball rolled dead, straight into the middle of the hole,” Inman said.

Nelson kept pace when he rolled in an eight-foot putt for his own birdie.

“I’m thinking to myself, ‘Man, you ain’t losing this guy,’ ” Inman said.

Ginn dropped out with a bogey at No. 14, but Inman and Nelson kept going. Both players birdied the par-five 13th and when Nelson birdied the 14th, he was only one shot back.

Inman kept up a running commentary: “I’m thinking, man, Jiminy Christmas” . . . “Gol durned, what do you gotta do?” . . . “I was thinking about my mother who died June 25. You keep all those emotions inside of you.”

Nelson had some thoughts of his own.

“I kept waiting for something to happen . . . a bad shot or a bogey from Joe,” Nelson said. “It just never happened.”

As it turned out, Nelson had no more birdies left. Inman had two. He knocked a pitching wedge to five feet at No. 15 and made birdie. With a two-shot lead at the tee on the par-three 18th, Inman knew if he got it on the green, he would be a lock.

Inman’s seven-iron landed five feet short of the hole.

“You pretty well knew it was over then,” said Inman, who wept with happiness, then knocked in the birdie putt to end it.

“I’ve never played better golf,” he said.

Despite shooting 13 under during the weekend, Nelson never had a chance at a birdie putt to get even.

“After the first round, I thought if I shot 64-65 I would have a better chance to win then I would to lose by three,” he said.

But that’s what happened.

Inman once worked for the PGA Tour radio network, which figures. The way he talks, he doesn’t need a microphone, a script or a transmitter. He was engaged in an animated conversation on his cell phone as he walked into the interview area. He was talking to Mike McCullough, with whom he had just played 4 1/2 hours in the same threesome.

“Gotta go, Mike,” Inman said. “I’ll call you when I’m in the car.”

What could there be left to say? With Inman, you don’t ask, not at Wilshire anyway, where he plays better than he talks. And at this place, nobody plays better.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

SBC Senior Classic

198 (-15)

$210,000

Joe Inman

201 (-12)

$123,200

Larry Nelson

204 (-9)

$100,800

Stewart Ginn

205 (-8)