GOLF / DAN HAFNER : L.A. Open to Honor McSpaden

He doesn’t hit the ball quite as far and his putting is a bit shaky, but Harold (Jug) McSpaden, according to Chi Chi Rodriguez, is a golf phenomenon at 85.

In the days before the big money in professional golf, Byron Nelson and McSpaden were called the “Gold Dust Twins.”

Between them, they won most of the tournaments on the PGA Tour. The “gold” was sometimes as much as $1,500 for a victory.

The Nissan Los Angeles Open, at Riviera Country Club Feb. 8-11, is honoring McSpaden, who won it half a century ago, in 1944 when the tournament was played at Wilshire Country Club. McSpaden remembers playing Riviera in 1929, when it was only two years old.

He is still a solid golfer, as he proved with an 80 in a practice round the other day at Riviera. Twice last year he shot rounds of 74, 10 shots under his age.

“Chi Chi said it was the most amazing feat in golf,” McSpaden said. “He bows every time he sees me and says it’s guys like us oldtimers who made it possible for these people to earn all this money.

“In 1934 I won all four tournaments in California. I won here in L.A., at Pasadena and Sacramento and won the San Francisco match-play tournament. I won less than $6,000 for the bunch.

“Last spring at the Legends of Golf, they held an unusual event. All the old golfers, like Tommy Bolt, Jerry Barber and myself, were in a 36-hole contest. The feat was to shoot your age or under for both rounds. If you failed on the first you were gone. I shot 78-80 and won $5,000.

“Of course, bread costs a lot more than a nickel these days.”

In 1944 McSpaden was No. 2 on the money list, behind Nelson, and earned $23,855.30 in War Bonds. After winning 17 tournaments, McSpaden, then 38, retired in 1947.

“I just plain got tired of it,” he said. “We drove to all the tournaments and played golf five or six days a week, depending on how far we had to drive between tournaments. I knew how long it took and the best roads to take to just about every city in the country.

“That last year in the L.A. Open (1947) at Riviera, Sam Snead made a birdie three on the 18th to beat us. I quit after the Masters that year. I three-putted 11, 13 and 15, and when I three-putted 18, I lost to Jimmy Demaret by two shots.

“Maybe my best year was 1938. I played more than 100 rounds that year and sportswriter Grantland Rice figured that I averaged 69.37 strokes a round. I remember during the war Bob Hope and Bing Crosby staged a tournament to raise money for the war. I shot 64-65--129 to win it. Bob Crosby and I won the pro-am and it made Bing so mad he wouldn’t give the trophy to his brother.”

When McSpaden left the tour, he joined Palm Beach Clothing Co., which sent him to Harvard.

“That’s when I finally started to make money,” McSpaden said. “The stock just kept going up. . . . I was tired of the traveling to play golf, but in my clothing job I was on the road almost as much.”

He was headquartered at a home on the Victory Hills Golf Course in Kansas City, Kan., which he built in 1929. At 2 a.m. one morning in 1978, McSpaden awoke to find the house on fire from a smoldering cigarette. He woke up his wife Betsy and she thought he was joking.

“It was no joke,” McSpaden said. “It was terrible. The flames were all around us and we tried crawling. A glass door blew out and we were right in the fire. We made it out, but I was temporarily blinded. I had cataracts on both eyes. I had to have surgery and in those days they didn’t have laser. It took a doctor with steel nerves and it was scary, but I finally regained my eyesight.

“The house was mostly redwood and the fire just wouldn’t stay put out. When it finally burned itself out, the only thing left was the fireplace. We rented a trailer and lived on the property until the house was rebuilt.”

Golf became an avocation after he left the tour.

“I was retired 40 years until I was persuaded to start playing in some senior events,” McSpaden said. “I kept playing socially, but never worked at it. So, I started playing in the Legends and the Senior Open.”

The USGA decreed that players in the Senior Open must walk 18 holes all four days of the tournament in 1989. Some elected not to play. But McSpaden, then 80, could still walk a brisk 18 holes and he did.

Although he says he doesn’t play often now, he apologized for shooting the 80 at Riviera. He was breaking in a new set of clubs.

When he was in his prime, McSpaden was a long hitter, but not as long as Jimmy Thompson. Thompson, the John Daly of that day, often hit the ball 325-350 yards, McSpaden said.

“Nowadays, they are making clubs that won’t slice or hook,” he said. “So the present-day golfers can’t do the things with a golf ball we could.”

McSpaden shot a 59 long before Al Geiberger did at Memphis.

“The only problem was that it came in the round before the San Antonio Open,” McSpaden said. “When it counted, I shot a 74, but I followed that with a 63. I had a distinguished group sign the card for the 59. Playing with me were Nelson, Paul Runyan and Walter Hagen.

“I hit my drives about 50 yards shorter than I did then, and sometimes I don’t putt so well, but with these new clubs, I guess I’ll keep playing a bit longer.”

Golf Notes

Al Geiberger recently bought a second home in Palm Springs, then learned there won’t be a senior tournament there this season. The Vintage at the Vintage Country Club was one of the first successful senior events, but it became unwieldy for the club to handle last year and it was moved to Indian Wells Resort. It couldn’t find a sponsor this year, but is expected to return to the area in 1995. . . . Raymond Floyd told Golf Digest he hopes his sons Raymond Jr., 19, and Robert, 17, don’t pursue professional golf careers because they won’t have their own identity because of the fame of their dad. But Dave Stockton is reveling in Dave Jr.’s qualifying for the PGA Tour. In his first event, the Hawaiian Open, Dave Stockton Jr. finished five under par and picked up $2,819. . . . Stockton Sr. has already informed officials he will play in the GTE West at Ojai March 3-6.