Columnist Dean Juipe: Charming iron man carries on

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or 259-4084.

There was plenty of chitchat and reminiscing going on around him, and Miller Barber occasionally broke from his ball-striking routine to listen to his PGA Senior Tour cohorts on the driving range at the TPC at Summerlin. Even at 68 years old and having participated in a record 501 Senior Tour events, it appeared as if he was studiously taking it all in, as if he was a rookie on the tour.

There was a certain serenity about it, a wholesomeness if you will. Barber barely said a word yet he was at rapt attention, rotating his focus from the pile of newly minted range balls at his side to the hobnobbing that permeated the scene Monday.

As a rule, these are friendly guys. And Barber, who has played in every Las Vegas Senior Classic and will participate in his 14th when he tees off Thursday, is as cordial as they come.

He is also an iron man. Since the 50-and-older tour was formed in 1980, it has held 565 tournaments.

This week is No. 502 for a man whose anonymity once resulted in his being known as Mr. X. But it seems more appropriate these days to refer to him respectfully, as in Mr. Barber.

"I'll probably play for a couple more years," he said after leaving the range to play a solo nine holes.

That doesn't mean he's challenging for tournament titles -- those days are gone. Barber has won 24 Senior Tour events but the last one came in 1989.

A more typical performance was his finish Sunday in the Nationwide Championship outside Atlanta, where his rounds of 78, 78 and 75 netted him $924 and a 74th-place showing in a field of 76.

"Oh, I played awful," he said. "I scored terribly. Hopefully I'll do better this week."

Las Vegas was his best finish during the 1998 season and that was only a tie for 30th. Unlike the men 15 and 18 years his junior, he's out there not so much to win but for his love of the game.

"I don't want to play too long, though," he said. "When I quit, I want people to remember me as a guy who could play and not as a guy who shot 80 all the time."

Those fears aside, when the time comes he'll be remembered as a man who could play. And he still can get it around, as demonstrated by the fact he shot his age three weeks ago in a tour event and he did it twice last year when 67 was the lucky number.

"But I still get a little upset with myself at times," he said. "That's age, and I know it. I'm not 23 or 24 anymore."

Back then he was on the PGA Tour, where he won 11 times between 1964 and '78. He won $1.5 million on that tour before becoming an original member of the Senior Tour, where he has earned almost $4 million.

"I've been lucky," he said. "I'm still out here playing for money and my health is good, although my asthma is kicking up a little today because of the altitude or just coming from Georgia."

There was no outward sign of it however, as Barber appeared to be in good spirits in spite of the quick climate change.

When a colleague, Bob Dickson, sauntered over and seemed to inspect the shafts of Barber's clubs, what he saw led him to remark "I didn't think they made these anymore" and he didn't say it in jest.

"Yup," Barber replied, keeping it simple.

Dickson backed away, shaking his head in amazement. In more ways than one, he had seen the past and realized it was still in the present.

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