Tuesday, April 21, 1998 | 8:45 a.m.
Lee Winston was playing in his first Senior PGA Tour Monday qualifier but it didn't take the Las Vegas resident long to learn what other, more seasoned golfers already knew.
"I wouldn't want to have to depend on this for my subsistence," Winston said after failing to qualify for one of four spots in this week's Las Vegas Senior Classic.
Ralph Terry, a seasoned Senior Tour player and former major-league pitcher, summed up Winston's thoughts more succinctly.
"Monday qualifiers are not fun," said Terry, who is better known as the New York Yankee pitcher who gave up the game-winning home run to Pittsburgh's Bill Mazeroski in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series.
Four players from Monday's qualifier at the Tournament Players Club at The Canyons, including Las Vegas' Tom Storey, advanced to the Senior Classic field. Walter Hall of Clemmons, N.C., was the low qualifier with a 4-under-par 67; Jim Wilkinson of Bend, Ore., qualified with a 68; Chuck Milne of Vancouver, Wash., was third at 69; and Storey was the only other player to break par at 1-under 70.
Hall is a veteran of Monday qualifiers, having earned his way into seven Senior PGA Tour events last year in 10 attempts. But the 50-year-old said they don't get any easier.
"Monday's are tough but it's a job and my job is to leave a tournament (Sunday), come out here and try to go to work again," Hall said.
"The only way I was going to play this week would be to Monday qualify because I think I was eighth or ninth alternate based on what I did last year. That was not going to get in because everybody plays this week."
Hall felt especially fortunate to have his 67 -- which he shot in the morning -- stand up for more than six hours while half of the 154-player field was attacking the course in the afternoon.
"This is just a bonus for me because I didn't get into Vegas until 1 o'clock (Monday) morning and didn't get unpacked and to bed until about 2 a.m.," he said.
Hall played in last weekend's PGA Seniors' Championship in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., finished in a tie for 47th place and earned $3,763.
Terry, a 62-year-old who has played in more than 100 Senior PGA Tour tournaments, likened the pressure a golfer feels in a Monday qualifier to that of a major-league pitcher facing a power hitter with the game on the line -- with one exception.
"Sure, there's pressure because you can't afford to make too many mistakes," Terry, who struggled to a 9-over-par 80 Monday, said. "Of course, in baseball, I had Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris behind me and they could run down some of my mistakes."
Winston, who shot a 6-over-par 77 Monday, chalked up the day -- and the $315 entry fee -- as a valuable learning experience.
"Both the guys I played with (Ray Arinno and Will Sowles) are excellent Senior players so it was like taking a lesson," Winston said. "Just watching them play and chatting with them was probably worth the fee to play.
"I think I learned something today: If you're fortunate enough to (earn your tour card), that's only the real assurance you have of making money. If you don't get out there, I couldn't sustain myself doing this, the grind would wear me out."
Winston, who missed advancing to last year's Senior PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament sectional by two shots, admitted he wasn't properly prepared for Monday's 18-hole qualifier. He spent last week in Arkansas visiting with his ailing grandmother when, normally, he would have spent the week playing the TPC at The Canyons and honing his game.
"Quite frankly, I was just kind of hitting balls and playing with the guys on the weekend and I didn't take any time off to prepare," he said. "I thought I'd just come out and give it a fling.
"My philosophy today was you come out and you get hot, you knock a bunch of stuff in the hole and you shoot 68 or something and you've got a chance. So I gambled a lot today; I was firing at the stick all day. I didn't hit any sticks but it was fun."
Terry acknowledged that the odds of his earning a spot into the Las Vegas Senior Classic were remote, But he said he couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit Las Vegas.
"Hey, it's a great golf course and a beautiful setting and it's a great excuse for me to come to Las Vegas," Terry said. "I like the frustration, the good and the bad of golf, and as long as I can play and I still think I can do it, I will.
"I'm very fortunate to be able to play two sports professionally in one lifetime. I wish I had played a little better today but like the old Brooklyn Dodgers used to say, 'wait 'til next year.'"
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