Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Commentary: Kite’s crazy to denounce Senior Tour

HE'S 46 YEARS OLD, the top money winner in the history of professional golf and maybe a little blind to the apparent decline in his game the last couple of years. So when Tom Kite says, as he did earlier this week at a golf outing in North Carolina, that he would rather not switch from the PGA Tour to the Senior Tour when he turns 50, one has to allow for the fact he still has almost four years to come to his senses.

By the time he turns 50 -- Dec. 9, 1999, to be exact -- Kite will cozy up to the Senior Tour as if it were created specifically for him. He'll adjust, just as the new leading man on the 50-and-over circuit has adjusted in the 10 months since his 50th birthday.

"I'm a senior player," said a reality-accepting Hale Irwin. "I know I'm a senior player and I will be a senior player. I'm here. Obviously I want to be here."

While Irwin still has the ability to be competitive on the regular tour, he has made the decision to play almost exclusively on the Senior Tour. That decision-making process was, of course, made easier by the fact he's raking in the money as the dominant player of the elder set.

His victory Sunday at the Seniors' Championship in Florida expanded Irwin's bank account by $198,000 and brought him to a tour-leading $624,925 in seven 1996 events. Since turning 50 he has played in 19 Senior events and won $1,424,100. That's roughly $78,000 per tournament.

Tom Kite may see it as a matter of having to swallow his pride, but he'll swallow it when he starts thinking of earning $78,000 a week.

"Just like everybody else, I'm older but I sure don't feel older," Kite told an Associated Press reporter, although he may have been speaking more for himself than the masses. "I'll take a good, hard look when I'm 50, but I'd rather stay on the PGA Tour. That's my opinion of where the big leagues are."

He needs to pay Irwin a consultation fee, or take this free advice from the man who has to be seen as the favorite for this week's $1 million Las Vegas Senior Classic at the TPC at Summerlin: "I might go over and visit the young guys on the PGA Tour every now and again, just to see what it's like, get beat up and come back here."

Irwin is apt to continue playing the four majors on the regular tour, but to demonstrate his commitment to the Senior Tour he said this week he was skipping the PGA Tour's Memorial (May 30-June 2 near Columbus, Ohio), a tournament he has won twice, and will, instead, play the Senior Tour's Bruno's Classic in Birmingham, Ala., that same week. Bruno's over the Memorial? If Irwin doesn't care what Kite may think of that decision, it probably has something to do with his new-found loyalty to the Senior Tour and the fact he has a shot at earning a record $2 million this year.

"I'm not going to keep tabs on it," Irwin said of his quest for two million. "But somebody might."

His facetiousness was apparent. He may not know to the penny, but Irwin knows what he has won and what he's capable of making on the Senior Tour.

In time, Kite will too.

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