Miller Takes Lead on a Day When Wind Sends Crosby Scores Soaring

PEBBLE BEACH —  After getting three weeks of ideal golfing weather, the touring professionals weren’t ready for the Crosby Pro-Am.

Crosby weather has been as much a part of the 44-year-old tournament as Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus or President Ford. But the tournament that Nathaniel Crosby took over after his father, Bing, died pulled a trick on the golfers Thursday.

There was no rain, no fog, no snow--it did snow on the Crosby in 1962. It was sunny enough to get a California tan.

It was as beautiful as a picture postcard, but Thursday’s Crosby weather was a gale-force wind that whipped up whitecaps on Monterey Bay and bent flagsticks almost parallel to the ground--turning a sightseeing day into a nightmare for the world’s greatest golfers.

Examples:

--Lanny Wadkins, winner of the Hope Classic and Los Angeles Open, had played 13 rounds without shooting over par. He was four under after 11 holes but took a triple bogey on No. 12 and a double bogey on No. 13, finishing at 73, one over par.

--Craig Stadler, one of the strongest men in the game, was tied for the lead with six holes to play. He played the final six in 10 o v er par, making a triple bogey, three double bogeys, a bogey and a par for a 78.

--Hal Sutton, runner-up in last week’s L.A. Open and 1983 Player of the Year, shot 42-45--87. That is 15 strokes over par. He finished triple bogey-triple bogey-bogey.

--Calvin Peete, winner of the Phoenix Open, shot an 81 and withdrew because the wind made it almost impossible for him to see with his contact lenses.

Want some more?

How about Masters champion Ben Crenshaw with a 79, defending champion Hale Irwin with 77, Jack Nicklaus with 76, Tom Watson and Lee Trevino with 75s.

All of that happened at Cypress Point, the magnificent course that sits along famous 17 Mile Drive--almost totally exposed to the raking winds that gusted between 30 and 40 m.p.h.

“It was a three-club wind,” said Johnny Miller, and he played at the relatively protected Spyglass Hill course where he shot a four-under 68 that held up for the first-round lead. What Miller meant was that when a shot called for, say, a 7-iron, the players used a 4-iron. And hoped.

“It was impossible to judge what your ball would do after you hit it,” Irwin said. “All you could do was hit and hope.”

It was the kind of a wind that caused most of the players to hit layup shots on the 233-yard 16th hole at Cypress and be happy to make a bogey 4.

Nathaniel Crosby, playing in his first PGA tournament as a professional--as the tournament sponsor, he gave himself a sponsor’s exemption--laid up on the across-the-water hole and then hit a solid 5-iron second shot into the wind to make par at No. 16.

Stadler’s wife, Sue, followed her husband for 12 holes before leaving the course because of the cold. “He was four under par and on top of the leader board with (Johnny) Miller when I left,” she said. “When he came home and told me he shot a 78, I didn’t believe him.”

Stadler, after showering, laughed about the debacle and said, “Cypress is still one of my three favorite courses.”

No one bettered par 72 at Cypress, and only two of 42 professionals even managed to equal it. David Ogrin, who has missed the cut in all three tournaments this year, and Joey Rassett, a friend of Crosby who isn’t even a tour player but who received a sponsor’s exemption, managed to shoot 72. They are tied for 10th, behind players who were at Spyglass or Pebble Beach.

“Part of the Crosby is being on the right course at the right time,” said veteran George Archer, who won the Crosby in 1969 and who shot a 69 Thursday at Pebble Beach. Also at 69 are Willie Wood, who played at Pebble Beach, and T.C. Chen, a Taiwanese pro who played at Spyglass.

Mark O’Meara, who won the California State Amateur at Pebble Beach in 1979, and Lee Elder, one of the new members of the seniors’ tour, had 70s at Spyglass. Also at 70 is Mike Reid, who played at Pebble Beach.

At 71 are Mark McCumber, Spyglass, and Ken Brown, Pebble Beach, a pro from England who won the Irish Open in 1978.

Miller, who won the Crosby in 1974 when it was cut to 54 holes by a continuing rain, credited his subpar round to two rather unusual things.

One is a 46-inch putter, nearly a foot longer than normal, that he grips the way he would a 36-inch model, tucking the rest of the shaft up under his armpit.

“It’s the longest club in my bag, even longer than my driver,” Miller said. “I started using it on Saturday at the L.A. Open and I’ve been putting better ever since. I lay it up alongside my arm, so I can’t break my wrists at impact. It keeps me from jerking my putts. I call it my anti-yip putter.

“It doesn’t look unusual, like Sam Snead’s sidesaddle, or anything like that. From the back, you can’t tell I’m doing anything different. It’s just a long, long shaft.”

The elongated putter did produce one spectacular birdie when Miller hit a 45-foot putt from the lower level of the 18th green that rolled up the hill and straight into the cup for one of his five birdies.

The other thing he credited for his subpar round is a novel method of preparing himself for the cold weather.

“After I warmed up, hitting balls on the range, instead of going to the putting green and standing around getting cold, I drove to Spyglass and sat in the car with the heat turned up as high as it would go,” Miller said. “When it was time to tee off, I was toasty warm. I birdied the first hole and went on from there. It only took me 15 years on the tour to figure that one, but I’m still learning.”

Young Crosby, who failed in his first attempt to earn a tour player’s card, has been preparing for the Crosby by playing on the European tour. Like Wadkins and Stadler, he, too, was on the leader board with a subpar score early in the day.

“When we come around the hill on 11, it (the wind) hit us,” said the 23-year-old former U.S. Amateur champion who first played in his dad’s tournament as an amateur at age 14. “I made a bogey there, and then I made a stupid mistake and made a double bogey on 12.