AMERICA AT LARGE: When Des Smyth reported to the first tee at Nashawtuc Country Club for the second round of the Bank of America Classic last Saturday, one of his playing partners, Doug Tewell, was there waiting for him. The other, Jay Overton, was not.
When the 11.20 tee-off time arrived, the starter directed Smyth and Tewell to proceed with their drives. He then dispatched a posse to search for Overton, and used his walkie-talkie to alert Ken Lindsay, the supervising PGA rules official, to the Case of the Missing Golfer.
Five days earlier at Shaker Hills Country Club in Sterling, Massachusetts, Overton had beaten 66 other aspiring golfers in an open qualifier to claim one of two available spots in the Bank of America tournament.
One of the more appealing features of life on the Champions Tour is that there is no cut. Once a golfer is in the field, all he needs to do to get paid is show up on time every day, walk 54 holes, remember to turn in his signed and attested scorecard, and not get caught kicking it in the rough or with an ERC driver in his bag.
The 54-year-old Overton doesn't get that many opportunities. His 13th-place finish at the Champions Tour Q-school last winter gets him into some, but not most, events. Formerly the head pro at Pinehurst, he now represents the Innisbrook Resort near Tampa, but spends most of his time criss-crossing the country in a quest that takes him from one qualifier to the next.
The Bank of America tourney was the 16th Champions' event of 2004, but it was only the seventh this year for Overton. In six earlier events he had won $59,463, but $37,000 of that came in the MasterCard Classic in March, when he tied for 13th. He hadn't made the top 40 since, but he looked in good shape last Friday, when he shot 69, the same score as Smyth and Tewell. It was Overton's first sub-70 round in two months.
"When they told me about it, it was already 11.23," said Lindsay, a former president of the PGA of America. "The first thing I did was rush over to the first tee in case he did get there."
When it comes to punctuality, Rule 6-3.a of the rules of golf is pretty unequivocal: "The player must start at the time established by the Committee. Penalty for breach of rule 6:3: Disqualification." But in a notation immediately following, the rulebook allows for a bit of wiggle room: if the player arrives within five minutes of his time, he may be assessed a two-stroke penalty in lieu of disqualification."
This stipulation is in effect at all Champions Tour events.
A tournament volunteer did manage to track down Overton. He was blithely hitting balls on the range. Informed that he had missed his tee time, he cast a sharp glance at his caddie and said "I thought you told me 11.40!"
"I thought that's what the sheet said," pleaded the caddie, Overton's 21-year-old son Jason.
Reporting for his tee time is ultimately the player's responsibility, but in truth, before the round commences the caddie doesn't have much to do other than knowing the correct tee time and making sure there are 14 clubs in the bag - and as Ian Woosnam learned in the British Open at Lytham three years ago, sometimes they don't even get that one right.
Overton, in any case, grabbed his bag and hit out for the first tee.
Arriving, he ran up to Lindsay and asked "Can I still play?" The Tour maintains a calibrated brace of Atomic Digital Clocks on the first and 10th tees. There is another at the driving range, and the rules official has a wristwatch synchronized to the same time.
"The clock said 11.25 and 12 seconds," recalled Lindsay. "I said 'Jay, I'm sorry, but you're past the deadline. My hands are tied'. He was visibly upset but there were no harsh words.
"He left immediately. Then about ten minutes later I ran into his wife.
"I said 'Sally, I'm so sorry,' and when she asked 'What happened?' I realised she didn't even know, so I was doubly unfortunate because I had to inform her as well," said Lindsay.
"There was a pretty heated exchange in the parking lot," reported the Nashawtuc caddiemaster, Don Dunlap. "Jay was reaming his son out pretty good. They left in such a hurry that Jason never turned in his bib." His father just might make him wear it around his neck for the rest of his life.
The "guaranteed" pay day having thus disappeared, the Overton family loaded up the car and was last seen squealing out of the Nashawtuc parking lot by noon, headed in the direction of Long Island, where Jay tried to play his way into another Champions Tour event in a Monday Qualifier at Bethpage Red Monday morning. He didn't qualify, but he is the 10th alternate for the Commerce Bank Long Island Classic, which commences tomorrow morning.
Overton wasn't the only golfer to experience a Senior Moment at Nashawtuc: a day later, when he looked at the newspaper and saw his posted totals, Juan "Chi-Chi" Rodriguez realised he must have signed for an incorrect score. Chi-Chi drove to the course, turned himself in, and was disqualified - even though he was probably the only man alive who knew about the mistake.
Smyth, who never did see Overton on Saturday, wound up tying for ninth at Nashawtuc, and collected $37,200 for his weekend's work. (Eamonn Darcy was 21st and made $18,083.) The event was won by Craig Stadler, and the Walrus's 24-year-old son Kevin won his first tournament, the Lake Erie Classic, in upstate New York the same afternoon.
It was the fifth win for Stadler in less than 13 months on the Champions Tour, and the first since he was apprehended for drunken driving at a tournament in Michigan last month. When he made his phone call to Kevin in celebration of the father-and-son wins Sunday evening, the Walrus had a modest proposal: "You're buying dinner, I'll buy the beers - and you're driving!"
