Ron Kantowski on why, at age 54 and with a surgically repaired neck, former major league pitcher Rick Rhoden is playing …

Saturday, June 2, 2007 | 7:12 a.m.

The final field for the The Ultimate Game, which will be playing for a first-place prize of $2 million - the richest golf tournament in the world - at Wynn Las Vegas on Thursday and Friday:

Chris Berry, Las Vegas

Erik Compton, Miami

Ron Faria, Sag Harbor, N.Y.

Tony Finau, Salt Lake City

Ken Jarner, Las Vegas

Travis Johnson, Long Beach, Calif.

Randy Leen, Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.

Scott Piercy, Las Vegas

Rick Rhoden, Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.

Byron Smith, Palm Desert, Calif.

Kevin Streelman, Scottsdale, Ariz.

Nathan Whitson, Ventura, Calif.

Rick Rhoden was a darn good major league pitcher who won 151 games and lost 125 for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Yankees and Houston Astros. His composite earned-run average over 16 big league seasons was 3.59, which would make him the ace of any staff today. He was selected for the All-Star Game twice and pitched in the World Series.

He could also swing the bat. Rhoden won two Silver Slugger Awards for his expertise with a Louisville Slugger. His career batting average was .238, better than most of his day's middle infielders. He smacked nine career homers and on June 11, 1988, he became the first pitcher since the American League adopted the designated hitter to start a game at that position.

He batted seventh in the Yankees' order that day. And if you're reading this while sitting on a bar stool, the answers to the trivia question are Rafael Santana and Joel Skinner. Those are the guys who had the dubious distinction of hitting behind Rhoden in Billy Martin's lineup.

Hitting a golf ball proved to be no more difficult than pitching or hitting a baseball for Rhoden, who, despite never taking a lesson, was a 2-handicap when he retired in 1989. He was good enough to qualify for the U.S. Senior Open, posted three top-10 finishes on the Champions Tour, or whatever the PGA is calling the Senior tour these days, and became the Tiger Woods of the Celebrity Players Tour, where he beats up on the likes of Donald Trump, Dweezil Zappa, Dan Quayle and that guy who played J. Peterman on "Seinfeld."

Having played baseball for a living and then retiring to the golf course, Rhoden was living the dream of many red-blooded American men. As for brushes with adversity, unless you count the season he spent in Albuquerque on the way to The Show and having to tolerate whatever nonsense Tommy Lasorda was spouting between starts, there were few.

Then he got run over by a cement truck.

It was five years ago last month that Rhoden was rear-ended in a wreck that proved to be a literal pain in the neck. The timing of the accident was awful, as it came just about the time Rhoden was preparing to make a killing on the Senior - er, Champions - Tour. The pain was even worse. Rhoden finally had surgery in January to fuse three ruptured disks in his neck.

"Except for the accident, which has been bad for my golf, yeah, it's been pretty good," Rhoden said Wednesday at Reflection Bay at Lake Las Vegas after being knocked into the consolation round at The Ultimate Game, Steve Wynn's winner-take-(nearly)-all $2 million golf tournament for barnstorming almost-pros and other fairway hustlers.

"But hey, there are guys worse off than me, that's for sure. I may not be able to play very good, but at least I can still play."

Last month Rhoden notched his 50th win on the celebrity tour by a whopping seven shots. He shot a 66 on the final day and hit the ball so well that John Elway, his playing partner, elected to punt instead of play out the round.

And so Rhoden thought he might even make it into next week's 12-man finals of The Ultimate Game, which would have enabled him to recoup the $50,000 he and his sponsors put up to enter and take a swing at the $2 million first prize.

That's a purse that would even impress Louis Vuitton. Because unless you are Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley or Lawrence Taylor, it's not every day that a retired ball player gets to play a round of golf for $2 million, especially when the money comes out of somebody else's pocket.

Rhoden will still get the chance as he shot 67 in the stroke play consolation round and then won a playoff to qualify for the 12th and final spot in the finals. So he's in despite running into Tony Finau, who at 17 is 37 years Rhoden's junior, in the match-play segment. While Rhoden is considered the Tiger Woods of celebrity golf, Finau looks like he could become the next Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour, and therein lay the difference Wednesday.

This was the first professional event for the strapping 6-foot-3 Finau, a native of Salt Lake City who is built like Rhoden but hits the ball farther. A lot farther. Whereas Rhoden's drives had enough distance to clear the ivy at Wrigley Field, Finau's would have wound up deep in the bleachers. Or out on Waveland Avenue.

Rhoden said had the wind blown, maybe he would have had a chance to throw Finau a curveball around the greens. It didn't. So after 17 holes of match play, he picked up his ball and asked a reporter whether he needed a ride back to the clubhouse.

As Rhoden said, it's hard to beat a guy when you're hitting a 4-iron to the green and he's hitting half a wedge.

"Maybe if I had spent as much time hitting golf balls as I did hitting baseballs, but who knows if I would have done any better?" Rhoden said with a shrug of his lanky shoulders.

But that's OK. Because I'd be willing to put up $50,000 of somebody else's money that Tony Finau wouldn't know how to pitch to Reggie Jackson with the bases loaded, either.