Tolan, 16, Gets to Find Himself at U.S. Open

By THOMAS BONK

June 6, 2002 12 AM PT

Soon after he chipped in from 50 feet to win a three-way playoff and qualify for the U.S. Open Championship, 16-year-old Derek Tolan got so many calls it nearly fried his cell phone.

“I’m pretty lost right now,” said Tolan, a junior-to-be at ThunderRidge High in Highlands Ranch, Colo.

It’s understandable. Tolan’s shot shocked PGA Tour veteran Mike Reid and Mike Zaremba, and propelled the teen into the U.S. Open field at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, N.Y., next week. Tolan already has lined up two practice rounds.

“But not with Tiger,” he said. “I already asked. He’s booked.”

In the 36-hole qualifying Monday at Columbine (Colo.) Country Club, Tolan was three shots ahead in the race for the second spot but bogeyed three of the last five holes and was forced into the playoff.

John Tolan, a club pro and his son’s only teacher, was in agony as he watched the bogeys.

“I know what it’s like for that to happen and you try so hard not to think about making bogeys, but that’s all you can think about,” the elder Tolan said. “But Derek has mental focus years beyond a 16-year-old.”

Tolan isn’t the youngest to play the U.S. Open. In 1941, Tyrell Garth was 14. He may, however, be one of the luckiest.

On the first playoff hole, Tolan was short of the green, his ball on the front fringe, a solid 50 feet from the hole. His next shot was a chip.

“It kept going, I saw it going, I didn’t know what it was going to do,” John Tolan said. “Then it went in. I was so nervous on the back nine, I just couldn’t believe it.”

Neither could Derek, but with all the hoopla, he has gotten used to the idea of making the Open.

“My goal is mostly just to see what it’s like and get a feel for it,” he said. “I want to see how tough the Open is, how tough the course is, how tough the players are.”

He won’t be the only Tolan on hand to find out. His father and mother, Darlene, will be at Bethpage and so will sisters Heather, 20, and Chantel, 11.

John Tolan says Derek, who is 5 feet 11 and slender, hits the ball pretty far.

“And he has a real good short game,” he said.

Obviously.

Open Up

There are hints now that the U.S. Golf Assn. will not announce its choice for the site for the 2008 U.S. Open on Wednesday at Bethpage Black as expected. The site was to have been revealed in the organization’s annual news conference at the U.S. Open, with Riviera Country Club and Torrey Pines Golf Course figuring prominently as the front-runners.

It seems that the deal is much more complicated than you would think, with Pebble Beach being rumored as the choice for 2009 and the USGA apparently trying to tie that one down first. Speculation is that the club that doesn’t get the 2008 bid will be awarded the U.S. Open in 2010 or possibly 2011--at which time Tiger Woods will be 35 and playing his 15th full year as a pro.

The Open sites already announced are Olympia Fields in 2003, Shinnecock Hills in 2004, Pinehurst No. 2 in 2005, Winged Foot in 2006 and Oakmont in 2007.

This Just In

In a survey of nearly 800 of its members, the Golf Course Superintendents Assn. of America asked what the most interesting course for a major is this year--38% each for Bethpage Black and Augusta National, 14% for Muirfield in Scotland (British Open), and 8% for Hazeltine in Chaska, Minn. (PGA Championship).

This Just Out

News item: Part of BusinessWeek’s May 20 article called “The PGA Tour: Where’s the Green?” includes an item about the “proposed” Major Champions Tour, “an eight-event mini-tour in 2003 [that] would feature 20 top pros and compete head-to-head with the PGA Tour.”

Reaction: Since the Major Champions Tour, at least in that format, went belly-up about a month ago, it reflects poorly on the credibility of the rest of the story, fairly or not.

Tiger Update

News item: The pairings program for last week’s Kemper Open included a “Tiger Who” story, accompanied by a picture of Woods with a red circle and a slash ... a satirical shot at his skipping the tournament.

Reaction: This virtually guarantees “Tiger Who” won’t play next year, either.

Shoe News

Those red slip-on golf shoes that Annika Sorenstam wore and caused such a stir when she won the Nabisco Championship, well, they simply won’t go away. Nike Golf will ship 150 pairs of the Verdana Slip-ons to the U.S. Women’s Open next month and sell them for $85 (available in sizes 6 through 11).

There’s no word whether Sorenstam will be wearing them again because she doesn’t have a shoe deal with Nike.

Playing a Round

Yes, we know Bethpage Black is a public course, but do you know how many rounds were played there last year? Try 50,000.

And while we’re on the subject of Bethpage Black, the USGA is probably going to do very well financially at the Open. It has sold all 42,500 of the daily tickets, 78 corporate hospitality tents--50% more than ever before--including 18 at $175,000 apiece along the 18th fairway.

The Rose Garden

He just jumped 21 places in the Official World Ranking to No. 48, so the hottest golfer in the world right now must be, yes, Justin Rose.

And who have thought that sentence would ever be written?

The 21-year-old Brit won the Victor Chandler British Masters last week at Woburn, England, and has four victories in five months.

That’s probably going to make Rose a huge factor for Europe in the Ryder Cup. What? Rose wasn’t chosen for the team? OK, then. Besides Sergio Garcia and maybe Colin Montgomerie, no one has played better than Jose Maria Olazabal has, so he’ll pick up the slack. He’s not on the team either? Oh.

Masonry

This is what the Senior PGA Tour is all about ... well, this and corporate tents: James Mason, a 5-foot-11, 240-pound, 51-year-old club pro from Dillard, Ga., a Monday qualifier, beat the top senior players and won the NFL Golf Classic at Clifton, N.J., on Sunday.

Mason, who earned $195,000, cleared about $15,000 last year after expenses when he managed to be a Monday qualifier five times in 14 tries. Now he’s exempt on the tour for 2003, which Mason said is good news.

“I’ve got some credit card companies on my tail,” he said.

Balancing Act

Wilson Golf, which says it’s the first to develop a perfectly balanced golf ball, has come up with a test that might actually do two things--either prove it, or show a misbehaving ball where it might be headed if it doesn’t go straight.

Fill up a container with warm water and add enough Epsom salts so the ball floats when you put it in. Add a few drops of dishwashing liquid to reduce friction. Spin the ball. The light side of the ball will be up, the heavy side down. Mark the light side with a permanent marker. Spin it again. If you see that dot again, you’ve got an unbalanced ball.

On the bright side, you’ve also got a clean ball.

Business News

According to Golf Datatech, golf ball sales reached $46.7 million in April.

So Start Designing

Proof that it’s good to be a successful golf course architect: Tom Fazio listed his 9,500-square-foot house at Champions Hills golf community in Hendersonville, N.C., at $3.6 million.

Birdies, Bogeys, Pars

Kermit Alexander, Andy Carey, Marlin McKeever, Toi Cook, Dr. Sammy Lee, Alan Thicke and Kevin Dobson are some of the celebrities expected to play in the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame celebrity tournament June 21 at the California Country Club in Whittier. Details: (760) 632-7770.

The 103rd Southern California Golf Assn. Amateur will hold eight qualifying tournaments at five sites beginning today at Industry Hills. The championship will be played July 12-14 at El Caballero in Tarzana.

The other tournaments are Monday at Spring Valley Lake Country Club in Victorville; Tuesday at Cypress Ridge Golf Club in Arroyo Grande and the Auld Course in Chula Vista; Wednesday at Landmark Golf Club in Indio; and June 13 and June 18 at the SCGA Members Club in Murrieta. Details: (818) 980-3630.

Southern California qualifying for the U.S. Senior Open will be held Monday at Eldorado Country Club in Indian Wells and June 17 at the Country Club of Rancho Bernardo in San Diego and at Stockdale Country Club in Bakersfield. The U.S. Senior Open will be held June 27-30 at Caves Valley Golf Club in Baltimore. Details: (818) 980-3630.

The 2003 Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach Country Club is being moved a week later in the schedule, to March 21-23, one week after the SBC Senior Classic at Valencia.

The Lili Claire Foundation’s celebrity tournament will be held June 20 at Lost Canyons Golf Club in Simi Valley. The event benefits the foundation, which aids children with neurogenetic birth defects.

Details: (310) 396-4355.

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Buick Classic

When: Today-Sunday.

Where: Westchester Country Club, West Course (6,722 yards, par 71); Harrison, N.Y.

Purse: $3.5 million. Winner’s share: $630,000.

TV: ESPN (today, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.; Friday, 1-3 p.m.) and Channel 7 (Saturday, 12:30-3 p.m.; Sunday, noon-3 p.m.).

LPGA TOUR

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When: Today-Sunday.