Columnist Dean Juipe: Kendall strives for that elusive first win

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2003 | 11:19 a.m.

1983, Fuzzy Zoeller, 340

1984, Denis Watson, 341

1985, Curtis Strange, 338

1986, Greg Norman, 333

1987, Paul Azinger, 271*

1988, Gary Koch, 274*

1989, Scott Hoch, 336

1990, Bob Tway** , 334

1991, Andrew Magee** , 329

1992, John Cook, 334

1993, Davis Love III, 331

1994, Bruce Lietzke, 332

1995, Jim Furyk, 331

1996, Tiger Woods** , 332

1997, Bill Glasson, 340

1998, Jim Furyk, 335

1999, Jim Furyk, 331

2000, Billy Andrade, 332

2001, Bob Estes, 329

2002, Phil Tataurangi, 330

* -- weather-shortened

** -- won playoff

Long before UNLV won a national championship and became a perennial power in collegiate golf, Skip Kendall was the Rebels' best-ever player.

When he went to school here, from 1982 through '86, golf was an aside within the athletic department. A former athletic director, Chub Drakulich, coached the loosely formed squad, which played in the Big West Conference, and the players were content to sneak in a practice round or two at the old Desert Inn.

There was neither an accent on golf at UNLV nor a plethora of standout players. It was the pre-Dwaine Knight era, a dark ages of sorts, with the university, its golf program and the city still in the early stages of development.

Kendall, a young man from Wisconsin, adapted and prospered as best he could under the circumstances. With little fanfare, he graduated, turned pro and within two years had won the Wisconsin State Open.

He won it again the following year, in 1989, and began to stretch his horizons. A pro golf tour -- any pro golf tour -- beckoned, and Kendall matriculated to the old Hogan Tour in 1991.

By 1993 he was on the PGA Tour and by 1997 he had what has amounted to permanent possession of a tour card.

Playing the tour regularly and continually playing well enough to retain his card, Kendall answers the bell almost every week and takes home a nice bundle of cash.

In 288 starts on the PGA Tour he has accumulated precisely $5,579,056 in earnings.

But he has never won.

"One of these weeks it's going to happen -- it has to," he said Monday at the TPC at Summerlin, when asked right off the top about being the reigning player on tour without a victory. "But I will say I'm not hung up on it."

Kendall would be within his rights to refuse answering any more questions about his failure to win a PGA Tour event. Yet there he was, cheerful and smiling, taking still another request for his opinion on this supposed drought and giving a heartfelt response.

It's consistent with his warm approach to people and the sport that this lithe man -- at a mere 5-foot-8 and 150 pounds -- stays fresh and positive even after so many years of being denied a victory. Now 39 years old and with two playoff losses as his closest calls, he might never get to experience the thrill of coming out ahead.

But that doesn't mean he isn't a winner.

In the course of a few minutes' conversation, he spoke of the diligence he puts into the game and of the fondness he retains for Knight and the UNLV golf program. And despite a less than remarkable showing over the years in the Las Vegas Invitational, when he tees it up for Wednesday's first round at least one thought will pass through his mind: Might this be the week?

"I've had some decent tournaments here, although without threatening to win," he said. "But this tournament always comes down to a putting contest. Unfortunately for me, I haven't putted that well lately."

Kendall arrived in Las Vegas this week from the Southern Farm Bureau Classic in Madison, Miss., where he made the cut and earned $6,780. That boosted his 2003 earnings to $919,917, placing him a safe No. 71 on the money list.

As always, he has prospered while hardly varying from the middle of the pack.

"I've had a decent year without it being anything stellar," he said.

A straight hitter who is not exceptionally long, Kendall relies on his putting and laughs as he says, "I considered myself a good putter until I got out here on the tour with these guys." Yet he has reason to believe his stroke will return.

"You never know when it's going to turn around," he said of his putting troubles. "Uncharacteristically for me, I was putting better the last five years and finally felt I had a handle on it. So then I started working on my ball striking and now my putting has tailed off.

"But I've been working hard on it lately."

Kendall has two near misses and three second-place finishes in his PGA Tour career. In 1998 he lost a playoff to Scott Simpson at the Buick Invitational, and in 2000 he lost a playoff to Steve Lowery at the Farm Bureau Classic.

In each of those cases, Kendall showed his metal by rallying to gain a playoff berth. At the '98 Buick Invitational he birdied the final hole to tie Simpson and at the '00 Farm Bureau he came from four shots back with a closing 66 to tie Lowery.

Yet fate -- or luck -- failed to fall in his favor, just as it bypassed him in 1999 when he finished second to Brent Geiberger in the Hartford Open despite rounds of 63, 68, 68 and 66.

He does, however, know what it's like to win beyond Wisconsin, having won twice in 1994 on what is now the Nationwide Tour.

But will he ever experience that type of euphoria again?

"Starting to putt better in 1997 turned my career around," he said, and the money list proves his point as he had a five-year stretch in which he finished between Nos. 32 and 74 on the final tally sheet. "The idea, of course, is to put both (putting and ball striking) together.

"Hopefully, that day will come."

With that he smiled, extended a hand, asked about the Rebels again, gathered his bag and headed for the first tee and a practice round. It was a quiet morning, just one in a lifetime of golf, socializing and fond memories for a working class member of the tour.

As he walked away and I checked my notes, I found myself touched by sentimentality. I found myself hoping along with him that this will be the week.