While you rub your eyes, Raymond Floyd rubs his toes. That`s about it for the perils of being so primitive, sore feet after another morning`s walk toward a dream. The man who refuses to act his age can`t answer what everybody asks.
”I`m almost 50 and I`m playing the best golf of my life,” Floyd said.
”I don`t know why. I`ve got no reasons. Heck, for a while there, I didn`t think I`d make 50, period.”
He warns that a few of those stories about his youthful carousing should be filed under fiction instead of fact, but the essence is there. During golf seasons in the distant past, Floyd often would hit the streets at night with more purpose than he hit the ball by day. Early success at both of his careers left him lacking for goals, and, what`s worse, trips across the Atlantic Ocean meant he didn`t have the Cubs to lean on for entertainment, either.
”You remember,” he said. ”I used to come over here and worry more about the baseball scores than my own.”
But Floyd is stalking the 121st British Open, anxious to fix the only facet of his career that feels broken. He has won all three of the sport`s other major events-the PGA (twice), Masters and U.S. Open-in three different decades, and could retire this minute as among the best ever. However, he says this tournament is the one he wants, not only because it`s the most important to him, but also because it`s the most important to the game.
Think about that. How many other golfers would elevate the trophy they don`t own above those they have tucked away safely? Especially at age 49, when Floyd fully comprehends that his chances to become only the fifth golfer to claim all Grand Slam titles dwindle with every 10-footer that won`t drop. He suffered too many of those Friday to emulate Thursday`s 64, yet did strike the ball well enough to reach all but three greens in regulation toward an even-par 71. Nick Faldo`s assault on Muirfield left Floyd five swings off the pace, no cause for despair.
”I like my position,” he said. ”Lots of golf to go.”
Indeed, there appears to be just that for this splendid strutter. While most contemporaries have lost the edge or the urge or both, Floyd`s fires rage on. He has more money than he`ll ever spend; a wonderful family starting with wife Maria, ”who helped straighten me out”; even major league baseball will expand to Raymond`s Florida backyard next season. Count the reasons why he could take to the hammock and savor his many blessings. Instead, like Lee Trevino and Arnold Palmer, Floyd cherishes the fight.
”It`s the competitor in me,” he said. ”I hear all the right questions about why this is happening, but I can`t help you. You tell me Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson don`t seem to enjoy it as much as I still do, and I can`t really respond because I don`t really know what`s inside of them. I know how great they were and are. But whether they still look forward to getting up and going to the golf course like they used to . . . let me say this. If I wasn`t playing as well as I have been the last year, the last couple years, I`m sure my interest in competing would be diminished. Thing is . . .”
Thing is, at age 49, Floyd remains a viable possibility to contend for any championship he seeks, and the bigger the better. When Floyd won at Doral this spring, 29 years after his first victory, he tied Sam Snead`s mark for triumphs over the longest span of time. Snead, who won in 1936, was almost 53 when he won in 1965. That record could perish. Floyd has that much zeal, and it is enhanced by reality. He knows there will be a tomorrow, probably soon, when he won`t be able to make the ball talk anymore. That`s why today is so special.
”I will not play to a point where I embarrass myself,” Floyd said. ”I hope I won`t, anyway. I hope somebody stops me if I can`t stop myself. I remember a few years ago, before I improved my mechanics and developed all this confidence, how tedious it was. Beating practice balls, wondering why. I don`t want that.
”At some point, I`ll play the Senior Tour. A few tournaments after September, when I turn 50. It`s my responsibility; it`s also something I`ll enjoy. I`ll be with a bunch of my old buddies, the guys I came up with and admire. Arnold, Chi Chi, Lee, all of them. I know I`ll have fun because I see how much fun they have now. Like them, I`ll also appreciate how good we have it because of golf. I don`t know whether all the kids in this locker room understand that.”
