Mathis Senior Golf Tournament : His Fast Start Surprises New Old-Timer Douglass

Dale Douglass, the hottest golfer on any of the tours, will lead a strong field into the opening round of professional competition in the 54-hole $250,000 Johnny Mathis senior tournament today at MountainGate Country Club.

This is the second Mathis tournament, and although the legendary Arnold Palmer, whose appearance guarantees success, and Gary Player won’t be on hand, defending champion Peter Thomson and six of the top seven money winners on this year’s Senior PGA Tour are entered.

The favorite, naturally, is Douglass. He has played in just two senior events but is fourth in earnings after losing a playoff in his first tournament and winning the Vintage Invitational last week at Indian Wells.

Douglass, who has averaged 67.7 strokes for his seven rounds, has led in each of the last six rounds. In his first round two weeks ago at Sun City, Ariz., Douglass shot a 67 that was good for second place.

Among those who will try to stop the string are Charlie Owens and Lee Elder, currently waging a hot battle for the money lead. Owens, who has won two tournaments, has earned $83,874. Elder is about $1,000 behind.

Others with a chance to slow down Douglass include Don January, Miller Barber, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Billy Casper and Jim Feree.

Most of the talk, though, is about Douglass. After earning only about $45,000 in his last six years as a part-time player on the regular PGA Tour, Douglass was hardly expected to take the Senior Tour by storm when he became eligible March 5. Even he is surprised.

“I knew I was playing well and also knew I would be pumped up,” Douglass said. “But I certainly wasn’t expecting to do this well.

“I just seem to have everything going well for me. I am a player who needs to keep playing regularly to stay sharp. I’ll have to rest next week because there isn’t any tournament. I still feel sharp and I want to keep the string going.”

In the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Douglass was competitive on the regular tour. In one 10-month span, he won his three tournaments, beginning with the Azalea Open in 1969. But painful neck and wrist injuries slowed him when he was at his peak.

“I was a better player physically back then,” Douglass said. “But I never had a streak in which I lost a playoff one week and won the tournament the next. I played well enough the last two weeks to have been competitive on the regular tour. I probably wouldn’t have won, but I would have been close.”

The physical problems began for Douglass when he suffered whiplash in a car accident in 1969. The neck caused only minor problems until 1972, when Asian flu apparently settled in his neck.

“For the next seven years, it seemed that once a month I would get a stiff neck that would last about 10 days,” Douglass said. “When a doctor had me wear a small lift in my right heel, that problem was practically eliminated.

“I also had a wrist injury. Other players have had worse injuries and survived. The mistake I made was in continuing to play. I should have stopped playing until I was completely well. What it did was take away my confidence. I’m certain that’s why I never enjoyed much success again on the regular tour.”

Before turning 50, Douglass, who won only $2,662 last year, played in PGA Tour events at Phoenix and Hawaii this year.

“I made the cut in both of them,” he said. “That’s when I knew I was ready for the seniors. Even so, you can be playing great and not win. You don’t have control over how anyone else plays. There can always be someone hotter than you.”

Palmer, bothered by a back problem, isn’t here because of a conflict with the Tournament Players Championship. Player isn’t here because of the new IRS ruling on how many days a non-resident can spend in this country without paying U.S. taxes on all of his earnings.

“I don’t have to go home, but I have to leave the country this week,” the popular Player said after finishing second in the Vintage. “There is no tournament next week, and I have to be careful about making the most of my allotted days.”

Just as they did last year, the players grumbled Thursday about the difficulty of putting on the MountainGate greens. However, Gay Brewer didn’t find them too tough, shooting a seven-under-par 65 in the pro-am. Douglass shot a 73 and said he liked the course.