Perhaps the toughest thing Tom Kite and Bruce Fleisher will deal with this weekend is mixed emotions.
Kite is the SBC Senior Open’s defending champion. Fleisher is the man he beat by two strokes last year in a tense final-round duel at Kemper Lakes.
When Kite woke up Thursday it didn’t take him long to realize that he was in Long Grove instead of at Lytham & St. Annes in England.
“Obviously, I’m dying not being in Britain,” he said of missing the British Open for only the second time since 1975. “Flipping on the TV this morning and watching them playing was kind of tough.”
Kite received a 10-year exemption into the British Open for winning the 1992 U.S. Open, and it expired this year. His conscience, though, wouldn’t allow him to break a moral obligation to defend his SBC crown.
“I was playing with Tom Watson last week, and he said, `You need to come [to the British].’ But at the same time I knew I needed to be in Chicago,” Kite said.
Along with Kite, Fleisher faces a field that includes three-time SBC Open champion Hale Irwin, this year’s four-time winner Larry Nelson and Allen Doyle, who won a playoff in last week’s Senior Players Championship.
Fleisher, who leads the Senior money list with $1,732,592, will be trying to erase disappointing second-place finishes in his last two SBC Senior Opens. But that’s not all.
“Everyone always says `What’s happened to the older marquee players?’ But it’s time to turn that around,” Fleisher said. “It’s time to acknowledge what is now. I’ve averaged almost $80,000 every time I go out and play, and still they write, Jack Nicklaus isn’t here. We’ve got to start focusing on the guys who are winning now.”
Fleisher has won three times this year, including his first major championship with the U.S. Senior Open.
He also leads the Schwab Cup standings, a season-long points race based on top-10 finishes; the winner receives a $1 million annuity.
“I’m having a wonderful year, spurred on by the U.S. Senior Open,” Fleisher said. “The last 21/2 years . . . it has been a wonderful ride. There’s a wonderful, satisfying completeness. But it doesn’t last long. I’ve still got to go out and prove myself again.”
Kite, in his second year on the Senior Tour, has nine top-10 finishes in 14 events, including three thirds, a fourth and a sixth. But after winning twice as a rookie, he’s still seeking his first victory of 2001.
“It has been a reasonable year,” Kite said. “But I won’t say a great year. It has been a little mystifying because I have done some nice things. I have come excruciatingly close at times. But I haven’t been as consistent as last year. I’m trying to remain positive.”
Kite’s most impressive performance was his tie for fifth in the U.S. Open, the best showing by a player past age 50 in more than 25 years. Efforts like that only prove to Kite he can still play in what he calls the “major league.”
“Everything else is just a notch down,” Kite said. “But I’m 51 years old; I’m where I need to be. I’ve done well when I’ve gone back there. I’ve made the cut in all nine events I’ve played on the regular tour the last two years.
“But the PGA Tour doesn’t need Tom Kite right now. It’s got [Phil] Mickelson, [David] Duval and [Tiger] Woods.”
Senior Open
Where: Kemper Lakes Golf Club, Long Grove.
Schedule: Friday-Sunday–SBC Open at 8 a.m. Saturday–clinic for 12 and younger at 2 p.m. on the practice range.
Tickets: $20 daily pass; $50 weekly badge; parking $5.
TV: Saturday and Sunday, 3-5 p.m., WBBM-Ch. 2.
Directions: Exit Interstate 294 at Half Day Road and go west. Kemper Lakes is located on Old McHenry Road, approx. 2 miles northwest of Half Day Road.
