Senior Classic: Senior golfers trade clubs for stock cars at Speedway

George Archer, Larry Ziegler and a handful of other Senior PGA Tour players took an unusual approach in their preparation for today's opening round of the Las Vegas Senior Classic.

While Hale Irwin, Jim Colbert and most of the other Senior Tour regulars were studying breaks on the greens at the TPC at Summerlin or the TPC at The Canyons, Archer, Ziegler and four others were studying the racing groove at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

At speeds close to 130 mph.

Archer, Ziegler, Gibby Gilbert, Bob Eastwood, Walter Hall and Barney Thompson spent Wednesday afternoon taking part in the Richard Petty Driving Experience as guests of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

An unusual way to spend the eve of a $1.4 million golf tournament? It all depends upon your perspective, Ziegler said.

"Hell, we're almost 60 -- how much more time have we got?" the 59-year-old Ziegler cracked, brushing aside a question about such a risky outing the day before a tournament.

Based on the ear-to-ear grins displayed by every one of the six golfers after they stepped out of the 600-horsepower stock cars, their eight-lap trips around the 1.5-mile superspeedway were more satisfying than draining a 15-foot birdie putt.

"I'm enjoying it, that's what I'm doing," Gilbert said when asked what he was doing in a race car instead of beating golf balls on a driving range.

"This is my third time doing this -- I've done it twice in Indy. It's a great thrill and it's something we're not used to."

Hall, who was born and still resides in the birthplace of stock-car racing, North Carolina, said he has gained a new appreciation for professional race-car drivers as a result of his two Richard Petty Driving Experiences.

"Those guys, sitting in those cars for three or four hours, that's incredible," Hall said. "They have to be tremendous athletes to sit there and grip that wheel -- and they're going 40, 50, 60 miles an hour faster than we were going."

Gilbert agreed.

"Hey, we just did eight laps and I'm hot, I'm sweating like crazy in there," he said. "People say (drivers) are not athletes, that's b.s.

"Those guys have to be in great physical and mental shape to do something like that for three or four hours and maintain that focus and concentration. In golf, you can turn it off and on a little bit. Here, you better not turn it off."

Archer took his first laps behind the wheel of a race car Wednesday after going for a ride-along in one last year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He said his previous ride-along helped him on Las Vegas' 1.5-mile banked oval.

"I went for a ride with these guys last year at Indy so I kind of knew what to expect, but this was the first time I ever got to drive," Archer said. "I'm glad I did that first because most of the guys aren't going very fast because you don't know what those cars will do.

"I rode in the (race) truck and the driver was going 170 and I was amazed at how well the thing held, so I never got scared when I was going into the corners. It felt like we were going pretty fast at the end, the last two laps, but I wasn't taking my eyes off (the instructor)."

Each driver took eight laps in a replica Winston Cup stock car, following an instructor in another car around the speedway.

Eastwood, who did some drag racing in his youth, said he preferred his driving experience at Las Vegas Motor Speedway to the two he has done at Indy.

"I've done this at Indianapolis twice and I wanted to go on a different track and see what the feel was and I think I enjoyed it here a little more than I did at Indy just because of the turns," he said. "You get the feel of the turns more here because of the banking."

Ziegler, a self-proclaimed NASCAR fan who attended the Las Vegas 400 NASCAR Winston Cup race at LVMS in March, appeared to be the most comfortable behind the wheel of all the golfers. Perhaps that is due to his close relationship with Winston Cup driver Steve Grissom.

"Steve Grissom is a good friend of mine. I've known him for 10 years and I got to drive his car," Ziegler said, sounding more like a fan than a professional athlete. "My best lap in these cars at Indy was 145.7 (mph)."

* SENIOR NOTES: The team headed by professional Al Geiberger won Wednesday's Georgia-Pacific Super Senior pro-am at Anthem Country Club in Henderson. Geiberger's team, which included amateurs Jerry Olson, Ed Orr, Jack Lantery and Scott Zemp, posted a net score of 49. Second place went to the team headed by pro Terry Dill, with a 52. Don January's team was third at 53.

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