You`d think Mike Hill would be looking forward to this week`s U.S. Senior Open at Oakland Hills in Birmingham, Mich., after winning the Ameritech Senior Open.
Hill is a Michigan native who lives in Brooklyn, Mich., where he owns a golf course, but he isn`t too excited about playing before the home folks. The best thing about winning on Sunday was his ”friends” and neighbors won`t be asking how he managed to lose.
”It`s a lot harder playing near home,” he said after winning at Stonebridge Country Club. ”There are a lot of requests for tickets. Then you`ve got people who have seen you play since you were 16 years old. They know too much you. They know all the bad things and don`t like the good things to come up. I don`t particularly care to play in Michigan.
”People have been pretty tough on Davy (brother, Dave, another Senior PGA Tour star) and me. We probably brought it on ourselves but you don`t have to take it to your grave.”
– Tournaments like the Ameritech Senior Open are used by sponsors as vehicles to entertain customers and, the general golfing public is the beneficiary. While corporate smoozing was going on in the hospitality tents, Joe Fan was able to see some of the top Senior PGA Tour players.
”We get $1 billion in sales from the people we entertain here,” said Jack Koten, senior vice president for corporate communications for Ameritech. ”If anything happens as a result of this event, the company benefits. We look at it as an investment of the future.
– Who has won as many Britsh Opens in the last 10 years as anyone? Pete Bender. Pete Bender? Bender caddied for Ian Baker-Finch at Royal Birkdale and was Greg Norman`s caddy at Turnberry in 1986.
– European Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher continued the lack of diplomacy and lack of respect for American golfers that former captain Tony Jacklin started. Gallacher fired another pre-Ryder Cup shot with his comments that no American would finish in the top five at the British Open. As it turned out, Mark O`Meara was third, Fred Couples was fourth while Bob Tway and Jodie Mudd tied for fifth. There were no Euro golfers in the top five and just three-Eamon Darcy, who tied for fifth, and Seve Ballesteros and Bernhard Langer, who tied for 10th-in the top 10. It was almost exclusivley a colonies leaderboard with Australians Baker-Finch and Mike Harwood and the four Americans in the top seven.
– Lance Ten Broeck went a long ways towards earning his PGA Tour card with his second-place finish at the Chattanooga Classic. The former Chicago golfer won $75,500 by finishing second to Dillard Pruitt by two shots. Ten Broeck now has $138,265 in 1991 earnings and stands 75th on the money list. The top 125 are exempt for the next season. What makes Ten Broeck`s year even better is that he is currently not exempt and hasn`t been able to get in as many tournaments as he`d like. Also encouraging at Chattanooga was the play of David Ogrin for 54 holes. The former Waukegan golfer made his first cut in 13 tries and shot three straight 68s before a final round of 73.
– Illinois Open week starts Tuesday at Royal Fox Golf Club in St. Charles with a long drive clinic featuring Guiness Book record holder Gary Schuman. Schuman, who holds the world record at sea level with a 411-yard, 32-inch drive, will give a clinic at 4:30 p.m. on the 10th tee. Following the clinic he will challenge all-comers head-to-head. Fans can hit a driver against Schuman`s 1-iron or take a 50-yard handicap with three balls for $5. Prizes will be given and proceeds go to the Boy Scouts.
– Almost every golf outing has a big prize for a hole-in-one but rarely does anyone walk away with it. Richard Mix got an ace and drove away with the big prize at the July 16 Graphic Finishing Industry outing at Cog Hill No. 1. Mix, of Mount Prospect, used a 4-iron on the 143-yard fourth hole and drove away with a 1991 Chevy Lumina.
