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Sutton makes no concessions

At 44, the slumping golfer refuses to settle for 14-win career.

By BOB HARIG, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published September 18, 2002

PALM HARBOR -- No other player in golf can claim the feat: Hal Sutton stared down Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, stealing prestigious prizes in the process. That, alone, is something to brag about.

Sutton has accomplished more than defeating Nicklaus at the 1983 PGA Championship or Woods at the 2000 Players Championship, bookends to his career. But at age 44 and in a slump that has seen him drop out of the world's top 100, he is seeking to find his game again.

That's why he spent hours practicing for this week's Tampa Bay Classic in the searing heat Tuesday at the Westin Innisbrook Resort.

It would be easier to sit back and enjoy the spoils of success, the 14 PGA Tour victories, the $14-million in prize money. Sutton, who will play for the United States in next week's Ryder Cup, could have accepted his fate, given in to age, conceded it is a younger player's game.

"It's not my style, basically," he said.

So he is here, having found a glimmer of hope in a complicated game. The ball striking is better, even if there are no results to prove it. And the Ryder Cup awaits, one of his favorite events. That's why he is playing here, despite the logistical problems of trying to get to Europe after the tournament.

"I wasn't going to gain any confidence sitting at home," Sutton said. "I felt like it was a good idea to come here and play, see if we can put it to the test some and get something out of it."

Sutton was one of the leaders of the U.S. Ryder Cup team in 1999 and is expected to be a U.S. captain in a future Cup. He keyed the final-day comeback, winning his Sunday singles match against Darren Clarke (4 and 2) with the best record of any American (3-1-1).

A year later, he held off Woods at the Players Championship, saying how others needed to stand up to the game's best. He added a victory in Greensboro and won again last year in Houston.

Then his game suffered. Sutton has seen his ranking slip from 21st a year ago to 121st. He has made nine cuts in 24 events this year, including a stretch of five straight misses from the U.S. Open to the PGA Championship, where he tied for 60th.

Physical ailments were part of the problem. Last summer Sutton was diagnosed with sleep apnea, which requires him to wear an air-flow mask to get a good night's rest. He also injured a rib muscle that caused him to miss the Masters. Sutton uses neither as an excuse.

"This is a silly game," he said. "I had everybody in place from a swing coach to everybody I thought who could keep this from happening. I felt this coming on 21/2 years ago. I could feel something in my swing. The guy I was working with (Floyd Horgen), I talked to him about it for a year and a half and he couldn't see it. When it finally got to where he could see it, it was so bad we couldn't fix it instantly.

"My point is, sometimes, even doing everything you feel you can do to prevent it from happening, it still overcomes you. I guess it's meant to go through the process. Everything's in cycles."

Sutton has been through this before. A one-time phenom, Sutton won the 1983 Players Championship and was hailed as the "next Nicklaus" after defeating the Golden Bear at the PGA.

He won seven times in his first five years on tour, then went nine years without a victory, 1986-95. He emerged again in his late 30s to be a force. When he won last year at Houston, it was his sixth victory in his 40s, as many as Ben Hogan, Greg Norman and Tom Kite.

"He's the kind of guy you want on your team," U.S. Ryder Cup captain Curtis Strange said. "I don't give a damn how he's playing. He was a rock in '99 and I expect him to be near the same thing in 2002. It doesn't bother me that he's not at the top of his form because he's the kind of guy you always want to go to battle with."

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