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Sunday, March 11, 2001

Jeff Sluman is 5 feet 7 and weighs 140 pounds, hardly the physical specs of a professional athlete. For years, he has been one of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour. But that is all changing for the former PGA champion.

At the Buick Invitational last month, Sluman averaged 282.4 yards in driving distance, which ranked 21st among the players competing in the tournament. The year before, in the same tournament, measured on the same holes, he averaged 256.3 yards -- a difference of 26 yards.

At this year's Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, Sluman averaged 283.5 yards, 25 yards more than he did in the same tournament in 2000 (258.8).

Is Sluman on steroids? Is he the latest to join the pump-me-up fitness craze that has overtaken the PGA Tour? Is his increased distance the result of the latest technological gains in equipment?

Actually, Sluman is one of the many players who have been using the new Titleist Pro V1 ball, whose sales have been matching the great distances the ball is flying. Titleist released the Pro V1 last fall as an answer to the Nike Tour Accuracy, the non-wound ball that prompted Tiger Woods to abdicate the Titleist stable.

Since then, Phil Mickelson has won four times using the ball. Eight of the 10 winners on the PGA Tour, including two-time winner Joe Durant, use the Pro V1.

Davis Love III, who also uses the ball, has four consecutive top-10 finishes and five in six starts this year. He has shot in the 60s in 17 of the 24 rounds he has played.

"Tiger and Notah [Begay III] had a ball that we all wished we had," Love said in an interview in Golfweek. "And when we got [the Pro V1], we got even more distance. I don't know how they did that."

But defending Masters champion Vijay Singh, who uses the Pro V1 and is getting 5-10 yards more distance, said the ball could be hurting the longer hitters.

"It's not good for the longer hitter because the ability to hit it long doesn't come into play anymore," Singh said. "I mean, everybody's coming closer to where you've been hitting. And it's not going to change."

The good news for local golfers: The Pro V1 is available at off-course stores and pro shops in the area, having arrived last week.

To its credit, Titleist is marketing and selling the exact same ball used by the tour players, thereby avoiding the controversy that snagged Woods and Nike last year. Nike was selling a Tour Accuracy ball that was different than the one Woods was using.

"I've never seen anything like it," Titleist rep Pete Knezevich said. "It's changed the game for so many players out there. So many short hitters are back in the game."

Trivia question

Fred Couples is one of two players to hold the final 36-hole scoring record at The Players Championship, shooting 68-64 -- 132 in 1996. Who is the other? Answer at end.

On shaky ground

It had been 20 years since he played in a PGA Tour event at Doral, so it wasn't as if Bob Ford was comfortable with the setting. Heck, just playing in any PGA Tour event is nerve-wracking for a player who makes his living as a club pro.

It showed, too, when Ford, the Oakmont Country Club pro, shot an opening-round 77, then followed with a 2-under 70 to miss the cut at 147. Ford had a chance to shoot 68 the second day, but he missed a 12-foot birdie putt at the final hole, then missed a 4-footer coming back.

"I was so sure I was going to make it I just rammed it on by," said Ford, who works during the fall and winter months at Seminole Golf Club.

Ford hopes to get another chance at a PGA Tour event. The Tri-State PGA section gets three spots in the Marconi Pennsylvania Classic Sept. 20-23 at Laurel Valley CC, and two are still available. Montour pro John Mazza gets an automatic spot as the section's player of the year in 2000.

Changing spikes

Al Del Greco was cut last week by the Tennessee Titans, one of the low moments for the 17-year NFL kicker. But he got a much-needed morale boost several days later when he earned a spot in the season-opening Buy.Com Florida Classic being played in Gainesville. Del Greco shot 70 in the Monday qualifier to get a spot in the field -- the first time he will compete directly in an event against professional golfers. But he missed the cut after a 76-79--155.

Del Greco has won the amateur portion of the Senior Tour's NFL Cadillac Classic five times, but he was competing only against other football players in that event.

"By no means do I think I'm ready to do this full time," he said. "I happened to play well in the qualifier. It is more of a learning experience to play with guys who do it for a living on a PGA Tour-style course that is set up for professional golfers. I want to learn from it and see how I rate."

Quotable

Singh on the impact of Woods not winning in 2001: "When he just doesn't produce the same golf or same finish that he's been doing, guys do take notice of it. And now him not winning in Dubai, there's a lot of guys that won't be intimidated as much by that."

Dissa and data

The Madison Club, the 18-hole daily-fee facility near New Stanton, named Dave Mahalko as head professional. He replaces Bill Kossack, who resigned to take a job with a computer consulting business.

The fourth Stan Wiel Memorial tournament will be Aug. 22 at Chartiers Country Club, the course where Wiel served as head professional for many years. Proceeds will benefit the Western Pennsylvania Caddie Scholarship Fund. An annual scholarship will be named after Wiel.

Golfsmith is the latest company to sell a non-conforming driver in the U.S. market -- the Lynx Parallax Hi-COR. The company said results from an in-house survey showed there is consumer demand for non-conforming drivers. And the Lynx Parallax is non-conforming, with a coefficient of restitution of 0.85. The legal COR standard as established by the United States Golf Association is 0.83.

Brian DeJohn, a Shaler High School graduate and former Treesdale assistant, has been named head pro at TPC at Deere Run -- host course for the PGA Tour's John Deere Classic -- in Silvis, Ill.

Mike Weir's 62 in last week's Genuity Championship at Doral was the lowest score shot by a left-hander on the PGA Tour. The previous mark was 63, set by several players.

Joe Durant's victory at the Genuity Championship, his second this year, was the fifth by a former Buy.Com Tour player in 2001.

Trivia answer

Greensburg native Rocco Mediate shot 66-66 -- 132 in the final two rounds the same year as Couples.