Chip Finally Able to Knock Big Block Off His Shoulder

In an informal poll in the press tent at the 62nd L.A. Open as to the best player never to have won a tournament, the scribes quickly settled on two names--Bobby Wadkins and Chip Beck.

Chip Beck has shot himself out of contention. They’ll have to think of some new questions to ask Chip Beck.

He has left the forlorn company of the Minnesota Vikings, Denver Broncos, Harold Stassen, the German Army, Thomas E. Dewey--the great losers of history.

Chip Beck had made an art form out of finishing second. He invented ways to do it. He came from ahead, he came from behind, he came from even. “Choke” Beck was more like it. It didn’t matter whether the tournament was the U.S. Open (1986), a team tourney (Disney, 1981), or an ordinary tour event, Chip rose to the challenge. They didn’t make the course he couldn’t finish second on. He was like a race horse who, once he got lapped on the leader, stopped running. Chip had a lock on second. Seven times he finished there. He was the Second-Hand Rose of the PGA.

So, when he came in the press tent at Riviera Saturday night sporting a three-shot lead over the field in the L.A. Open, the questions, however artfully posed, ran cautiously to the “Who do you think you’ll lose to this time, Chip?” You would have thought they were talking to a guy six shots out of the lead.

One scribe cleared his throat and went right to the heart of the matter. “Chip,” he asked, hurriedly, “in view of your record, do you have self doubts as you contemplate tomorrow’s final round? Do you take stock and consider there might be something you lack?” English translation: “Do you find it hard to swallow the night before a final round?” Or even “Do you hope it rains tomorrow?”

If Chip Beck was tired of hearing that question, he never let on. Chip smiles more than an insurance salesman.

You would think a guy who has never won in 10 years on the tour and has been runner-up seven times would have the look on his face of a guy whose dog just bit him. Chip Beck looks as if he’s gaining on Hogan in lifetime wins.

In a way, he is. Chip Beck just broke the second-longest drought in recent PGA annals with a burst of final-round golf which his closest competitor on Saturday night, Jay Haas, called “as fine a round as I’ve seen anyone play.” Haas also called it “a pleasure to watch,” adding: “If you watched him play today, you’d think he won 30 times.”

Beck now only has 29 to go. What’s even better is he doesn’t have to search for any character flaws any more which keep him from winning.

Not that he needed it, but Chip Beck finally has a reason to smile.

The charm of Chip Beck is, it never occurred to him there was anything seriously wrong with him or his golf game. On the whole, he rather enjoyed the public inquisition into the reasons for his near misses. Some guys would have wanted to hide in the locker room, lock themselves away, refuse to answer questions.

Chip was kind of touched. “I appreciated all those questions,” he says sincerely. “I was grateful all those people were so concerned about me. It’s better than having them not care any.” His attitude sort of calls to mind the Abraham Lincoln story about the guy who was tarred and feathered and who, as he rode out of town on a rail, said “If it weren’t for the honor of the thing, I’d rather walk.”

To Chip, all the slings and innuendoes were just a complicated form of caring. “I’m real glad it’s taken me this long to win,” he says earnestly. “I don’t think I’d be the player I am today if I won my first year.”

Chip thinks he’s lucky there’s a game like golf for him even to finish second. Some guys treat golf as if it were a gorilla in the house who had to be removed barehanded. To Chip, it’s like a midnight sail.

You would think a guy would want to celebrate his first win with a magnum of champagne, a little violin music, a candlelight dinner. Chip just wants to look forward to playing golf again next Thursday. “Isn’t that crazy?” he asks. “I get happy just thinking about being able to play Doral this week.”

Even if he finishes second.