Call it Tradition for Tewell

Doug Tewell plays the best golf of his career to handily win the Tradition

By John Strege
Golf World

The Countrywide Tradition has come up short in establishing itself as the Masters for seniors. In this kind of weather, no one cares to wear a jacket, green or otherwise. Pimento cheese sandwiches would not do so well, either.

The hardpan of the Arizona desert has proven unsuitable for setting down roots deep enough to deliver on the promise of a tournament that bills itself as the Tradition. Ultimately it was capable only of honoring the past, having heretofore failed to contribute to it in any remarkable way.

And so, the moving vans are standing by. The Golf Club of Desert Mountain is preparing to relinquish its hold on a Senior PGA Tour major championship, much to the chagrin of ... whom, precisely? Surely the list is not a lengthy one.

Just as surely, the saddest among those on the list would be Doug Tewell, coincidentally this year's annual honoree--by virtue of his 2000 PGA Seniors' Championship--and an honorary member at Desert Mountain. Ironically, Tewell delivered a performance capable of providing the Cochise Course an assist in establishing a legacy, by playing 72 holes in a tournament record 23-under-par 265 for a nine-stroke victory.

Tewell was a wire-to-wire winner who took a discomfitting two-stroke lead into the final round and, with temperatures nearing 90, shot a course-record 10-under- par 62 to win comfortably and spectacularly, his fourth Senior PGA Tour victory and second senior major championship.

"We talk about the zone," he said, "and the zone was there for me. Every time I hit a putt today it felt like butter coming off the face. What a great feeling."

A victim of his own lack of intensity in the past, Tewell was determined to take a page from the Tiger Woods primer and keep his focus at a fever pitch. He even pondered wearing a red shirt Sunday, before deciding it might be interpreted as a sign of arrogance.

"My intensity has been terrible," he said. "I never watch golf tournaments other than the Masters, and I watched Tiger and I watched his intensity. Yeah, you try to emulate what great players do. I wish I could emulate his clubhead speed. I did putt like him, though."

Tewell, 51, delivered a nice sendoff for a tournament that has run its course at its current locale. The Tradition has one more year on its contract with Desert Mountain, though Lyle Anderson, the tournament and club founder, said he would petition PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem to have the tournament moved elsewhere in 2002, possibly to Superstition Mountain in southeast Scottsdale. Anderson is determined to fortify the crowds by making the tournament more accessible, bringing ticket and concession prices more in line with household entertainment budgets.

The Tradition's status as a major has not enabled it to escape the same question that has dogged other, less prestigious senior tour events: Where are the crowds?

Two elements working against the Tradition were the price of a single-day ticket ($40), as well as the 27-mile bus ride from the public parking lot at the Tournament Players Club. Moreover, the Cochise Course is not particularly spectator friendly, not, at any rate, without a sherpa to assist in circumnavigating the rugged desert topography and some of the vast expanses from greens to tees.

The spectators' entourage also would have been incomplete without a beekeeper and a snake handler. Bee swarms caused tournament officials to summon a beekeeper to monitor their movement, and several snake handlers were on duty to assist rattlers who had the audacity to encroach on turf that was taken from them.

Snakes prefer to avoid crowds, of course, which ostensibly rendered snake handlers unnecessary. One Scottsdale hotel even placed a stack of tickets on its front desk each day, free for anyone who wanted them. When people won't buy your tickets and you can't give them away, does it not diminish the stature of a major championship?

Compounding the problem was the absence of one of the senior tour's bona fide drawing cards, duly noted by the winner here. Tom Watson chose to forego a senior major championship at which he had finished second a year ago, instead choosing to play the PGA Tour's WorldCom Classic (where he missed the cut). His defection provided fodder for those arguing that a tournament should not become a major championship by declaration, as the Tradition was.

"Tom is off in Hilton Head this week because he thinks he can still beat those guys," Tewell said. "But he doesn't consider this a major. I think it is. It's four rounds. We're all preparing for it like it's a major, and we need majors out here. We just have to get some of our key guys to support us. I'd like to be at Hilton Head, too. I won that tournament. But we're trying to make this a major, and I don't know why the senior tour can't have majors. But some don't seem to think we have majors. I know Tom has had a great career and won everything in the world and maybe this doesn't get him too fired up, but he could help us a lot. I wish he would consider it."

Tewell is doing his part, by playing to a level that largely eluded him on the PGA Tour. He won only four times and even now pleads guilty to having underachieved. He eschewed advice, he said, recognizing it now as "stupid pride." He was always accurate from the tee, encouraging the suggestion from some that he ought to be winning U.S. Opens, an exercise that requires patience. If only he had any then.

"The difference now is patience," he said. "I'm a much more patient player. I used to be a much more fiery type of player. Maybe I was a Tommy Bolt then. Boy, I could let the club leave my hands in a hurry if I wanted it. But I've calmed down."

Still, he had trouble letting go of a disturbing bogey he made on the final hole Saturday, when he semi-shanked a bunker shot that ultimately reduced his lead to two strokes. "As much as I tried to fight off that 18th hole," he said, "it seemed to linger a little bit."

Once again, master instructor Jim Flick stepped in with a timely assist. Tewell has been working with Flick for more than a year, and when he came here this week, Flick noticed Tewell's alignment was askew. He was attempting to hit his usual soft fade, but was doing so while aimed right of the target, causing him subconsciously to pull it back on line.

On the morning of the final round, Flick weighed in with some more advice. "See that name on top of the leader board?" he said to Tewell. "You've played well enough to put it there, so let's keep it there."