Falling Stars : As Game’s Giants Fade, Can Senior Tour Keep Growing?

It has been said that the Senior PGA Tour started as a trip down memory lane and ended up being a trip to the bank.

If that’s cynical, it isn’t all bad, since money makes the tours go around. And it’s true, with 44 events for a combined purse of $41 million scheduled for next year, the senior tour seems on stable ground.

But for how long?

The lack of familiar stars winning prompts the question: Can the tour maintain its success despite its changing face?

The early years were a good way for the public and the professionals to relive happy days. The point was to build the tour around familiar names--Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. They struck a nostalgic chord with golf fans and the tour, and the purses, grew by leaps and bounds.

And there is nothing to suggest that the trend won’t continue in the immediate future. The ever-diversifying sports market has embraced golf and its heroes.

But there is one nagging detail. The heroes aren’t winning anymore.

Palmer, perhaps the most popular player on the tour--maybe of all time--has struggled to the point where he questioned publicly if it isn’t time for him to give it up. Palmer, 67, has only five top-10 finishes in the 1990s.

Nicklaus was also questioning his game before a midyear revival.

And Rodriguez’s journey has been a strange and wondrous one.

He began the year away from the tour in Germany, where, at 60, he was working on changing his lifestyle, and his life.

Exercise, a change in diet and quitting smoking--hey, professional golfers are called athletes sometimes--were all part of the new regimen.

So were lamb hormone treatments in Germany.

Rodriguez said that both Winston Churchill and Marlene Dietrich had undergone the treatments. As far as he is concerned, they are a godsend.

“It’s a fountain of youth,” Rodriguez said. I couldn’t hear out of my left ear before I went, and now I can answer the telephone with it. I’ve never felt better in my entire life. I’m telling you, I feel 20 years younger,”

However, his game hasn’t improved. In 1995 he had his worst year on the tour, finishing 59th. This year he is 33rd on the money list with $371,747.

“Ever since I quit smoking, I can’t play this game,” he said. “I feel great. I could run nine holes right now, I just can’t play them.”

But Hale Irwin and Jim Colbert can. They have been among the top money winners all season. Irwin has been in contention in virtually all the tournaments he has played, and Colbert leads the tour with five victories.

But some question if Irwin and Colbert have the kind of marquee names the tour depends on.

Moreover, Irwin, No. 2 on the money list to Colbert with more than $1.4 million, has been the tour’s most vocal critic.

With a victory and three seconds, Irwin was just a few pin-drops away from sweeping the majors. But after winning the American Express Invitational on the TPC at Prestancia at Sarasota, Fla.--a course with few rough spots and smooth greens--Irwin almost apologized for the tour.

“I’m not complaining--I am having fun,” he said. “But golf to me is more than that. I just like to play golf courses where par is a meaningful score.”

Tom Weiskopf, who isn’t the most popular senior, didn’t help the tour’s credibility with his comment that golf was just a hobby that he found time for between his business obligations.

Irwin has also complained of short courses--a boon to players like John Bland, who has won four tournaments this year, but a hindrance to the hard hitters.

Bob Murphy, who is fifth in money won, responded that Irwin was too serious and should quit rocking the boat.

“He’s been very, very vocal about golf courses being too easy,” said Murphy. “I mean, why worry about that? Why not come out, win your 10 tournaments and enjoy it?”

Easy courses or not, the competition is coming in waves.

Of the top 32 money winners, 13 are either rookies or from other countries. On the horizon in 1997 are seven players from the PGA, the best known being Johnny Miller.

But if the burgeoning rivalry between Irwin and Colbert does provide some drama, it’s not the type to inspire the crowds that Rodriguez, Palmer and Nicklaus bring to the tour and it is not likely to inspire more television.

The Senior Slam in March--essentially made for TV--featured Raymond Floyd winning over Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf and J.C. Snead for a 1.3 rating on TBS. Some pointed out that at least all the names were familiar, even if it was J.C. instead of Sam Snead. Sam, 83, makes only occasional appearances these days.

Tour followers and officials, however, are particularly excited about the pros who will be senior-eligible in 1999. Tom Watson, Tom Kite and Lanny Wadkins will all turn 50 that year.

Imagine that, the nostalgia tour is looking toward a bright future.