Youngster Morgan Wins

When Gil Morgan, the golf club-swinging, nonpracticing optometrist from Wewoka, Okla., went out and won the Ralphs Senior Classic, what did it mean?

It was no optical illusion, that’s for sure.

A mere 10 days after his 50th birthday, Morgan became the youngest player to win a Senior PGA Tour event, and the first doctor of optometry to do so, mainly because he closed with a five-under-par 66 Sunday at cozy Wilshire Country Club.

It was quite a sight. Morgan made a spectacle of himself with five consecutive birdies to start, then survived a finish as shaky as trying to read an eye chart blindfolded and wound up with a one-shot victory over Chi Chi Rodriguez and Jim Colbert.

Afterward, Morgan wasn’t quite sure how he felt, except for the obvious.

“Well, I’m off to a good start,” he said.

So much for that break-in period so necessary for Senior Tour rookies.

It took two whole weeks for Morgan to win on the Senior Tour, a victory that came at the expense of Rodriguez, whose three-year winless drought remains intact.

After Morgan bogeyed the 18th hole, Rodriguez found himself tied for the lead. But it didn’t last very long.

Rodriguez saved par with a shaky four-foot putt on the 17th, after which he limped around as though he had a bad case of the gout.

Watching near the scorers’ tent, Morgan saw himself a winner when Rodriguez bogeyed the 444-yard par four 18th as his four-footer slid just past on the left side.

Rodriguez said the problem was obvious.

“I need a bigger hole,” he said.

Rodriguez closed with a 70 and finished second at 10-under-par 203, the same as Colbert, who had a 69.

Colbert needed to make a 15-foot putt on the last hole to get to 11-under par and force a playoff, but the ball rolled just past the cup on the left.

It probably was an eerily familiar feeling for Colbert, who missed a similar putt last year and finished second to John Bland by one shot.

Morgan’s victory was worth $120,000 and it also completed a unique Los Angeles trifecta. He also won the regular tour L.A. Open events at Riviera in 1978 and at Rancho Park in 1983.

Historians of trivia also may take notice of the fact that Morgan’s victory beats by three days George Archer’s seven-year-old record for the youngest senior tour winner.

Morgan hadn’t won since the 1990 Kemper Open, which may have accounted for the manner in which he staggered home.

On the 16th, Morgan knocked his eight-foot birdie putt five feet past the hole.

Although he made par, he blamed his nerves for blowing the first putt.

“I guess my adrenaline was going a little bit,” he said. “It’s been awhile since I’ve won. Those things kind of creep in. I was thinking ‘What an idiot to hit it that far by.’ ”

At the 17th, Morgan hit a wedge to 10 feet, but the ball rolled back from the hole to 30 feet. He left this putt two feet short, but made par.

And at 18, Morgan missed the green, chipped to seven feet and missed for bogey. Morgan said the ball “wobbled” through the break.

After that, Morgan was pretty sure what was going to happen.

“I felt like we’d be in a playoff,” he said. “I had to stand around and watch those guys come in. He chatted with friends, signed a few autographs and waited. He didn’t think he would have time to hit balls, and as it turned out, he didn’t need to.

Raymond Floyd, who began the day three shots off the lead, finished with a 68 and was three back at nine-under-par 204. Four tied at 206, including John Jacobs, Bob Charles, Graham Marsh and Dave Stockton.

Even though Rodriguez fell out of the lead when Morgan rolled in five consecutive birdie putts to start, Rodriguez knew he had a chance on the 17th fairway.

That’s when he found out Morgan had bogeyed the 18th and the margin was one shot.

But the same hole he eagled on Friday, he bogeyed this time. Rodriguez’s second shot was 25 feet above the hole in the fringe.

His first putt rolled past, four feet to the left. If he made it, there would be a playoff. Instead, he missed it. All that was left was for Rodriguez to congratulate Morgan and wonder about what might have been.

“I think Dr. Morgan was born two weeks too early,” Rodriguez said. “I think he’s done better as a golfer than he would as an eye doctor.”

Rodriguez said he feels all right about the outcome.

“Well, even the Cleveland Indians lost,” he said. “I can’t complain.”