Colbert aims at three-peat

Dean Juipe

Monday, April 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

WHEN Jim Colbert tees it up Friday in the first round of the Las Vegas Senior Classic, he'll take aim at a place in golfing history.

Only three players in the 17 years of the Senior Tour have won the same event three successive years, and Colbert has a shot at becoming No. 4. He's the tournament's two-time defending champion.

"It would be an honor to pull it off," Colbert said, yet he's coming into the event in less-than-ideal form. Injured and distracted the last three weeks, he finished 32nd at the PGA Seniors Championship that ended Sunday in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., with Hale Irwin winning by a Tiger Woods-like 12 strokes.

"I've got a bunch of pulled muscles in my back," Colbert said from Florida. "I was playing pretty good until then."

He said he shouldn't have played in The Tradition, a Senior major that was held three weeks ago and won by Gil Morgan.

"I wouldn't have played if The Tradition wasn't a big deal," Colbert said.

While it's widely known that Colbert has persistent back troubles, he said his current problem with the pulled muscles "isn't normal for me." The muscles are near his rib cage and are not related to his lower-back ailment, which he keeps under control by using magnets (to increase circulation).

While Colbert was helped physically by the Senior Tour taking a week off before its stop in Florida, he really wasn't able to get any rest. That's because his 89-year-old father, Jim, was transported from Las Vegas to Kansas City, where he'll live in a nursing home near Colbert's sister.

"He's slipped a little bit," Colbert said of his father's health. "It made more sense to get him near my sister."

In addition, Colbert's wife, Marcia, is recovering from skin-cancer surgery that was more extensive than expected.

Perhaps it was only Colbert's trademark mental toughness that allowed him to be competitive in Palm Beach Gardens. An opening 76 had him out of the title chase on a course too difficult to make up double-digit ground, yet he followed with rounds of 73, 74 and Sunday's 73 to come in at 296, 22 strokes behind Irwin's masterful 274.

"He's having a very un-Colbert-like week," NBC golf announcer Dave Marr said Saturday as the cameras focused briefly on Colbert. Marr meant no offense -- it's simply that Colbert has been the dominant player on the Senior Tour the last two years.

In 1996, Colbert won five tournaments (to run his Senior Tour total to 18 wins in six years), took the money title for a second straight year (with $1,627,890) and was the Player of the Year for a second consecutive season. It was a year full of accolades for the 56-year-old Las Vegan.

This year, however, hasn't picked up where last year left off.

Colbert is winless through the first nine events and ninth in prize money with $236,663. While rarely a leader in statistics such as greens in regulation and sand saves, he is only 21st in the All-Around stats.

"I don't have any excuses," he said of his play. "I'm starting to putt pretty decent and my chipping's OK. I feel my game's not in too bad a shape."

As one of nine Senior Tour players with his own plane, Colbert should be back in Las Vegas today in time to get an updated look at the new TPC at the Canyons course where the Senior Classic will be held. Colbert has played there only once.

"I was there on a perfect day," he said, "but I think if it gets windy, it could be a bit more difficult (than the TPC at Summerlin, where the tournament was played the last three years). In my mind, three things stood out: there isn't as much room; the greens are pretty hard, although they might have softened now; and there's more undulation in the greens."

The net result is that Colbert may have lost something of his home-course advantage.

"I knew the other course because I'd played it a lot," he said. "This one I won't know any better than anyone else."

But he always plays well at home, winning not only the last two years in Las Vegas, but in Tampa and Kansas City (while on the PGA Tour) -- cities where he lived prior to moving here a little more than a decade ago.

He won last year's LVSC after walking off the 18th green Sunday thinking he would finish no better than second. Yet it turned out that draining a 65-foot putt at 18 would pay a greater dividend than he originally realized.

"It was a total surprise," he said of winning. "I was about to head to the clubhouse when (Dave) Stockton stopped me and told me not to go anywhere."

Stockton and Colbert were tied, one stroke behind Bob Charles, at the final hole. But Charles, playing one group behind Colbert, left his approach 35 feet from the hole, then left his lag putt three feet short. When he missed his par putt, it resulted in a three-way playoff that Colbert won with a par on the second extra hole.

Charles eliminated himself from the playoff with another three-putt green, while Stockton was ousted when he failed to extricate his ball from a greenside bunker.

"Charles wouldn't three putt again from there in 100 years," Colbert said. "And Stockton is one of the best bunker players on the tour. It was a bizarre ending."

Senior notes

Wondering about the identity of the other eight Senior Tour players who have their own planes? The answer: Dave Stockton, Lee Trevino, Raymond Floyd, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Hale Irwin, Tom Weiskopf, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. ... Of that group, only Nicklaus -- despite an earlier tease that he might -- and Palmer are not playing in Las Vegas. ... Gary Player isn't participating here either, as he's having a double-hernia operation today. ... One prominent player who just missed being eligible to play in Las Vegas is Johnny Miller. He turns 50 -- the minimum age for a Senior Tour player -- April 29. ... Not back this year is Robert Landers, the interesting farmer-turned-golfer from Texas who was on the tour last year. He lost his playing privileges, however, when he finished No. 81 on the 1996 money list with only $80,862 in 24 events. ... Of the 11 previous Las Vegas champions, 10 are entered, with 1988 champ Larry Mowry the only absentee. ... Irwin, coming off his Sunday victory in Florida, had this to say about a three-day tournament like the one in Las Vegas. "In a three-round tournament, you have to get out quick and stay quick." Colbert followed that advice last year when he opened with a course-record 63 at Summerlin ... Trivia answer, part 2: If Colbert does win here for a three-peat, he'll join George Archer, Northville Classic, 1990-91-92; Bob Charles, Sunwest Bank Classic, 1987-88-89; and Rodriguez, Digital Classic, 1986-87-88, as players who won the same event three successive years. ... The other local pro on the Senior Tour, Boulder City's Bud Allin, had a decent showing in the PGA Seniors Championship, finishing in a tie for 15th place, 17 strokes behind Irwin. He won $15,000 to push his 1997 earnings to $251,060. ... Prize money for this year's tournament is $1 million, with $150,000 to the winner. ... ESPN will televise Friday (noon to 2 p.m.), Saturday (2:30 to 4 p.m.) and Sunday (2 to 4 p.m.). ... The weather forecast calls for a slight decrease in temperatures later in the week.