Toshiba Senior Classic: High as a Kite

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - As Tom Kite joins the good ol’ boy network of the

Senior PGA Tour, it brings back memories of his early days on the PGA

Tour.

“The competition is more intense on the regular tour, and for more

players it is probably more like life and death,” Kite said Wednesday,

following his pro-am round in the Toshiba Senior Classic at Newport Beach

Country Club.

“The senior tour is more like what the PGA Tour used to be like when I

started in the mid-1970s, but, still, the senior tour is a huge business

and has grown so much since it started (in 1980).

“Guys on the senior tour sit around more in the locker room and shoot the

breeze a lot more, and, of course, there’s no cut. You know you’re going

to be out there Saturday and Sunday. So, because of the reduction in

intensity, it’s more relaxed.”

Kite, one of three marquee players in their first full season on the

senior tour, along with Lanny Wadkins and Tom Watson, is still waiting

for his turn to hoist a championship trophy -- like Wadkins did in his

debut Feb. 13 and Watson in his second start last September. (Watson is

not playing in this week’s Toshiba Classic.)

“Hopefully, I’ll win soon, but there’s nothing to be scared of -- (the

expectation to win) is something I welcome,” he said. “It would be nice

to go out and win your first tournament, like Lanny did (at the ACE Group

Classic in Naples, Fla.). But I think I’ll win fairly soon. This is only

my fourth tournament.

“Before it’s all said and done, I’ll get my blows in.”

Kite, whose best finish this year came at the season-opening Royal

Caribbean Classic in Key Biscayne, Fla., where he tied for ninth,

considers the Senior PGA Tour “a nice little perk to have in your

career.”

“At this point in my career, it isn’t like I’m trying to make anybody

think higher of Tom Kite,” said the winner of 19 PGA Tour titles,

including his biggest triumph at the 1992 U.S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Kite, who turned 50 on Dec. 9, played in 21 events last year on the PGA

Tour, but made the cut only seven times.

“Realistically, I haven’t played well the last couple of years,” Kite

said. “Everybody wants to win. Tom, Lanny and myself have been fortunate

financially in our careers and we’re all OK, but you compete for wins.

Lanny and I have talked about it. It’s nice having the security that you

won’t miss playing on Saturday or Sunday and you’ll have a chance to win

and you won’t have that nervousness (of missing a cut).”

Kite, who said he’s longer off the tee than he was in the 1970s and ‘80s,

was the PGA Tour’s leading money winner in 1981 and 1989 and was the first player in tour history to reach the $6- , $7- , $8- and

$9-million marks in career earnings.

The captain of the 1997 U.S. Ryder Cup team and member of seven American

squads, Kite became known as the ultimate grinder, getting every inch out

of his game.

“I don’t beat the golf balls the way I used to,” he said. “You have to be

more cognizant of your body now and what’s hurting. At this age, you

don’t heal as quickly. But, recently somebody said, ‘Every morning I wake

up feeling hurt, but I like it because then you know you’re not dead.”’

Kite plans to play in about 22 senior tour events this year and five or

six tournaments on the PGA Tour.

And, it’s just a matter of time before he takes his place on the victory

stand on the senior tour. It could even be this weekend at Newport Beach.