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Equipment
Jeff Sluman captures his sixth career PGA Tour victory and his second Greater Milwaukee Open title in the past five years using a Titleist Pro V1 golf ball, as did the top four finishers and 10 of the 11 players who finished among the top 10 and ties.
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Players
Another top-10 finish at the Ford Senior Players Championship pads Hale Irwin's lead in the Charles Schwab Cup.
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Publications
Sleeping Bear Press releases Mr. Ryder's Trophy by Shirley Dusinberre Durham, a fictional work about one woman's conversations with the man who started the Ryder Cup competition.
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Instruction
DW Enterprises introduces a new putting aid, CheckerBalls by Fox, that it is manufacturing and distributing in the United States. The two-part design of the balls exaggerates the effect of an improper putting stroke, making it easier for the golfer to make a repeatable putting stroke.
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Tournaments
With her win at the Yamaha Georgia Women's Open two weeks ago, Linda Hunt, the head PGA professional at SummerGrove Golf Club in Newnan, Ga., earns one of only two sponsor exemptions into Atlanta's LPGA Tour event, the Chick-fil-A Charity Championship hosted by Nancy Lopez.
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Briefly
Fred Muller, Director of Golf at Crystal Downs Country Club and Ed Abbey, inventor, long time member of CDCC, and president of Greenspike, Inc., will be interviewed and heard on several Michigan radio stations Saturday. Check www.michigangilflive.com for a list of stations.

 

Reader's Forum The Masters uses a sudden death playoff format. The U.S. Open uses an 18-hole playoff. At the British Open and PGA Championships, three-hole aggregate playoffs break ties. Which of the three formats do you prefer and why -- or would you like to see another format implemented? Let us know your opinions by sending your responses to info@gpagolf.com with the subject line RE: playoff. Also include your first initial and last name, along with your email address.

Profile
Bill Rogers Ready to Give Golf Another Try

In celebration of British Open week, The Wire will temporarily replace our regular Wednesday commentary with a feature about Bill Rogers, who won the 1981 Open Championship and then faded from the golf scene.

The history of golf is littered with players who once had greatness within their grasp and lost it. Something slipped away with the wind one day, and their games never again had the polish and precision they once had.

Ralph Guldahl won back-to-back U.S. Opens in 1937 and '38 and the Masters in 1939, then virtually disappeared from competitive golf after 1940. He said he lost the urge to compete. Others claimed that working on a book about the golf swing so filled his mind with different swing thoughts that he couldn't play any longer.

Ian Baker-Finch won the 1991 British Open and within a few years couldn't find the fairway. Today he provides commentary for ABC-TV and remains the most mysterious and saddest case of a golfer losing his game.

Ryder Cup captain Curtis Strange falls somewhere in this discussion, as does Chip Beck, forever poised over that second shot to the 15th green in the '93 Masters.

One of the most interesting cases of a player who faded away before his time is Bill Rogers, winner of the 1981 British Open.

Rogers, a tall, lean Texan, had his best season in '81 when in addition to the British Open, he won the Heritage Classic, the NEC World Series of Golf and the Texas Open, in which he defeated Ben Crenshaw in a playoff.

It wasn't as though Rogers suddenly found his game in 1981; he had been an excellent player for several years. He really began to hit his stride in 1977, then won in '78 at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, had double-handfuls of top-10s over the next two years before winning four times in 1981. He also finished tied for second in the U.S. Open that same season.

His win at Royal St. George's brought fame, money and the cover of Sports Illustrated.

"Well, it was heady," he said. "I can tell you that. It's a sport that will drive the ego. There's no question about that. And the more success, the better you feel about everything and everybody is reminding you how good you are. It's heady territory."

"I felt like the beginning of my amateur career, I had a nice little gradual improvement right through to what happened in '81," he said. "And I'm kind of proud of all of that. But to be thrown in that arena. And as a British Open champion, as opposed to the Masters. You're kind of the world's champion and with that came a demand on time, travel, and I went after every deal and I burned it at both ends and went after it with gusto like it would never end, and I probably burned it a little too hard. Some people call it burnout."

Rogers had another good season in '82. Although he failed to win, he had seven top-10s and made the cut in 22 of 24 tournaments. He also was the forgotten man in that year's U.S. Open drama at Pebble Beach between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus. In fact, Rogers and Watson were tied entering the final round and Nicklaus was three back. Rogers shot a 74 that Sunday to finish tied for third, while Watson, of course, chipped in for birdie on No. 17 and birdied 18 to beat Nicklaus by two.

In '83, Rogers won at New Orleans and had three other top-10 finishes, including a tie for eighth in the British Open. But '83 was the last really good season Rogers would have. He played regularly over the five seasons, but compiled only two top-10s in 99 events and missed the cut in 52 tournaments.

After 1988, Rogers was gone from the Tour.

"It was just time," Rogers said of his decision to leave the competitive game. "There were a ton of reasons, but I don't think I was meant to kind of be a lifer on the tour. Children came along, raising a family and getting kind of the loss of desire and competitive spirit to compete with the guys, was pretty much the handwriting on the wall for me. As a player, you certainly would never want to face the scary scenario of never playing the game again and maybe becoming a club pro, but that's exactly what happened to me."

Rogers became a director of golf in San Antonio, Texas, then later got involved with building a Tom Fazio course there, Briggs Ranch Golf Club.

Of his slide from the top of the game following '83, Rogers said, "I probably became a little bit complacent. Frankly, I don't think I was willing to pay the price to stay up at that level. Who knows what that's all about. Maybe it's just kind of where you came from and who you were. It just wasn't my makeup, I don't think. You know, I was perfectly content, kind of chugging along making a living and having success on the tour. "

"I wasn't one of the dreamers. I wanted to win major championships and stuff like that which you hear about on the young tour. But I was content with what I was doing. It all happened in a hurry. Frankly, I was a bad time manager. I didn't handle all the responsibilities that came with it. And that was part of the plan as well. I have no regrets how everything has turned out. Heck, I had a great go. It wasn't completely like I fell away. I mean, I very much could have won the Watson Open in '82. I was right there. Then the one in '83. But I would say beginning about in '85, the handwriting was on the wall for me. I wasn't willing to go keep up with the pace of it there."

The beginning of the end of Rogers' Tour career might have occurred when he teed it for his first event of '82, the Phoenix Open.

"You kind of think that it will never end. Like (Tom) Weiskopf, I'll never forget him saying, when you're playing good, you never think you'll play bad again. When you're playing bad, you never think you'll play good. I won seven times that year ('81) around the world. I can distinctly remember teeing it up at Phoenix Country Club in 1982. My first tournament coming back from South Africa saying, 'Here we go, you better prove that you can do it again,' which is ridiculous. And that was something that I didn't quite know how to handle. I never kind of worked out of that probably."

But Rogers' story isn't over by a long shot. After numerous nudges from long-time pal Bruce Lietzke, Rogers played in the Senior PGA Championship this year at Firestone. He missed the cut by one shot, but it was a good showing for a guy whose last PGA Tour event was in 1991 when he missed the cut in the Texas Open with consecutive 74s.

With a new Senior exemption in place next year for Tour winners who didn't have enough career earnings for a ticket onto the Senior Tour, Rogers just might play more. He's going to try a few more tournaments this year just to test the water.

"My interest has been piqued a little bit in thinking about coming out," he said. "And if you had asked me a year ago, I would say absolutely not. As things have kind of happened, it just begins to be a little more interesting, working on your game and seeing a little bit of proof coming around, there might be thoughts of playing a little bit more."

So there may be a new beginning for Bill Rogers in competitive golf. For the guy who says he wasn't one of the dreamers, perhaps there's a spark left in that candle he burned at both ends back in 1981.