Golf: Sorry About That

Though he ranks fifth behind Arnold Palmer, Billy Casper, Jack Nicklaus and Julius Boros among pro golf’s alltime top-money winners, San Diego’s Gene Littler, 36, is so inconspicuous that he has been refused entry at the players’ gate. He frankly prefers it that way. “I just like to go out and play my game and be left alone,” he says. Littler’s game is called Finish in the Money, But Don’t Be Greedy. His lifetime earnings total $434,324, most of which has come from finishing second (23 times) or third (19 times) behind better-known pros. As a matter of fact, the only tour nament Littler has won in nearly four years was last year’s Canadian Open —when he shot a 66 on the last round. If he had known what the result of that would be, he might have shot a 99.

“What would you say the odds were against my being here? A million to one?” Littler asked in Akron last week, as he prepared to tee off in the World Series of Golf. A TV spectacular that carries a top prize of $50,000, the World Series is supposed to match the winners of golfs top four tournaments —the U.S. Open, the Masters, the British Open and the P.G.A. Three of the slots were easy to fill: Billy Casper won the Open, Al Geiberger won the P.G.A., and Jack Nicklaus was the Masters, champion. But Nicklaus also won the British Open. That left an open slot, and under the rules, it belonged to the winner of the Western Open. Only that was Billy Casper. So the promoters had to go all the way back to the winner of last year’s Canadian Open to fill their field—and Littler was nominated.

True in His Fashion. Littler is nothing if not true to himself. He did his level best to lose the World Series, but it just wasn’t enough. On the final day, going into the 625-yd. par-five 16th hole at the Firestone Country Club, he was leading Geiberger by two strokes, Nicklaus and Casper by four. So what did Gene do? He shanked a little pitch shot into a water hazard, took a double bogey, and dropped back into a tie with Nicklaus-who sank a nine-foot putt for a birdie. When Al Geiberger birdied the par-four, 465-yd. 18th, the match wound up in a three-way tie. Littler, Nicklaus and Geiberger all headed back to the 14th hole for a sudden-death playoff. Big Jack excused himself instantly, bouncing his tee shot off a tree, running his approach clear over the green. Geiberger missed an eight-foot putt for a birdie. Littler apologetically stroked his own 22-footer straight into the cup (“If it hadn’t been downhill, it wouldn’t have gone in”) and walked off with the biggest purse he has ever won in twelve years as a pro.