Golf

Round of applause for course clown

Most people play golf with a club. Bill Murray plays it with a shtick.

By DAVE SCHEIBER
Published February 17, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Times photo:Daniel Wallace] After putting on the 11th, Murray snags a plastic bag from the woods. Cold nips at field's heels View more photos; submit yours from the tournament

LUTZ - Most people play golf with a club. Bill Murray plays it with a shtick.

Early Friday at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, the veteran movie star and Saturday Night Live alum was snagged by a Fox TV crew on the way to his first tee. He promptly commandeered the brief interview by asking his own question. "Okay, I got one for you," he said in his familiar tone of straight-faced seriousness. "How do you say fox in Spanish?"

The reporter had no idea.

"Okay, get back to me on that one," Murray said, wheeling around and heading off to join pro partner Scott Simpson. It was classic Murray, and it set the tone for five hours of comedic exchanges with his foursome, rounded out by Peter Jacobsen and rocker Huey Lewis.

Along the way, Murray, a 16-handicap golfer, contributed two natural birdies and Simpson did the rest, leading the tandem to 8-under 63 and a share of the lead in the pro-am. Of course, Murray chipped in with the humor that attracted an increasingly larger crowd throughout the morning, despite chilly and windy conditions on the course.

About 30 spectators, clearly all Murray fans who remember him well from his gopher-chasing role in the 1980 cult hit Caddyshack, braved the cold at 7:40 to watch him tee off. "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome our special guest Bill Murray of Caddyshack," the announcer called out to loud applause.

"How'd you like that on your gravestone?" Murray quipped as a man yelled, "Go get that gopher!!!"

Sporting a green-and-blue checked sweater, black pants and bright green shoes, Murray responded with a shot that veered in the water at the 10th hole, where the group began play. In the tee box to start the second hole, he turned his thoughts to the weather. "Fortunes are being lost in the citrus industry as we stand here," he said. Moments later, he got serious by sinking the first of his two genuine birdies, as the crowd roared in approval.

A crowd favorite

Almost anything Murray did or said elicited a reaction from the gallery - from his triumphant fist pumps after a bad putt to the look of exaggerated annoyance when a banging sound nearby interrupted him when he was about to tee off.

Always playing to the crowd, he teased Simpson as he prepared for a putt on the third hole. "Avert your eyes! Don't let the women and children look!" Simpson made birdie, and Murray shouted, "Okay, children can now look at the screen."

As he walked the course, residents in homes lining the holes called his name and waved. A boy about 6 handed the native Chicagoan a Bucs cap to sign. "You should be wearing a Bears cap," he said, but he signed the hat and even took the boy's hand and walked with him for a few moments. He complimented a young girl on her freckles. "That was so exciting that he talked to me," said Jill Koenig, 13, of Bradenton.

All the while, he signed countless autographs as time and his mood dictated, announcing his policy: "I only sign for pretty girls, children and veterans."

He kidded with the two Hillsborough County deputies assigned to follow the foursome. After an errant drive on the sixth hole, he turned to Deputy Jeff Fox and said, "Fire a couple of shots in the air, will you? If I hit one on the fairway, then shoot, would you?" Two holes later, after bemoaning that the weather was getting so cold that by noon "it will be freezing," he approached Deputy Sean Peters by the gallery and asked what kind of gun he was carrying. "It's a Taser," Peters said.

"Oh, it's a Taser? May I try that for a second?" he asked as the crowd howled. "Just for a minute, c'mon. You don't have to have a license and training for it?" Peters nodded. "I've trained," Murray deadpanned. "You seen me putt?"

An autograph seeker leaned forward to see if Murray would sign a photo from Caddyshack. "What is this?" Murray said. "Do all the professional autograph collectors in the world assemble in Tampa? What happened here? I thought it was just a bunch of cigar rollers."

On their 10th hole the first on the TPC course, Murray saw Jacobsen's wife, Jan, and exclaimed, "It's your birthday today, Jan Jacobsen, and this crowd only has one song." He then led the gallery in a loud rendition of Happy Birthday, and, several minutes later, he and Lewis carried her on their shoulders off the tee.

Three holes later, his drive veered off the fairway into a wooded area. As he approached the ball, he chastised marshal Betty Mayo of Tarpon Springs. "Hey, what happened to marshals who used to throw their bodies in front of balls like that?"

Mayo told Murray she felt honored. "Well, you're gonna feel like a lot worse than that in a second." Then he went over and pushed her as if to start a fight. "He's beating up on me," Mayo protested. Murray turned to Deputy Fox and gave him an order with Jack Lord bluntness: "Spray her."

Joker to the end

So it went. The crowd of 30 grew to thousands from the halfway point until the end. The more people, the more Murray hammed it up with his gestures and quips. "Obviously we played in the AT&T (Pebble Beach) since '93 and had a blast," said Simpson, who finished second with Murray last week in Pebble Beach. "But you know, at times the more people are around, the funnier he gets because he sees things that nobody else sees. But at the same time, when it turns into an autograph fest, it can really wear him down."

"I just want to thank the Tampa Chamber of Commerce for turning out this weather for us today," Murray said after finishing about 1 p.m. "It was 34 degrees when I woke up this morning. And it's up to 39 now."

Did the Chicago weather bring out the best in him? "Well, it was Bear weather and I was still enraged about the Super Bowl, so I had a lot of fire in me," he said. "As it got warmer, our game disappeared."

When did he start playing golf as a kid? "Oh, come on now. I've been through a lot of therapy. I can't start again," he said, adding he began caddying at 10 and playing in his 20s.

Where is he going from here?

"Right now," he said, "I'm going to try to find a restroom."

Dave Scheiber can be reached at scheiber@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8541.

[Last modified February 16, 2007, 22:37:53]