Richard Dunn
With Gary McCord and John Jacobs representing the Senior PGA Tour
in the upcoming Hyundai Team Matches, event organizers of the
made-for-television golf tournament might consider miking both players
for added spectator entertainment.
No two professional golfers joke around more than McCord and Jacobs,
who are good buddies and golfing partners, as well as neighbors in
Scottsdale, Ariz., and in their prime (in their 50s!) as free spirits.
In Newport Beach, they helped make the Toshiba Senior Classic famous
in 1999 with their hilarious antics in a five-hole playoff, eventually
won by McCord, the wisecracking CBS golf commentator with the
barbershop-quartet mustache.
For these guys to return as a tandem, it's time to stop the presses
and redesign the brochure.
Oh, sure, Jack Nicklaus is a legend and widely viewed as the greatest
golfer of all time. But Nicklaus and partner Tom Watson will come nowhere
near McCord and Jacobs on the Richter scale of gags.
These days, with athletes and coaches wearing microphone hook-ups for
television audiences, the Hyundai Matches, formerly the Diners Club
Matches, would be the perfect venue for McCord and Jacobs to get wired
for sound. Not only for TV, but for those in the gallery at Pelican Hill
Golf Club.
McCord and Jacobs are locally renowned for their roles in an
unforgettable playoff in the '99 Toshiba Classic at Newport Beach Country
Club, producing one of the most memorable finishes in Senior Tour
history.
On the first playoff hole (No. 18), Jacobs chipped in for eagle from
90 feet. Believing he'd captured the tournament, Jacobs pranced around
the fairway in celebration, did an imitation of Chi Chi Rodriguez's sword
dance and then tumbled backward onto the turf.
The gallery erupted.
McCord, meanwhile, who had never won a PGA or Senior PGA Tour event in
382 previous starts, was staring at an 18-foot eagle putt to stay alive
and extend the playoff.
"I've played with Gary enough to know that he doesn't make that putt
for a $180 Nassau, so I was sure he wouldn't make it for $180,000,"
Jacobs said.
McCord sank the python putt to continue the playoff (and eliminate
Allen Doyle and Al Geiberger from the four-man playoff).
But after McCord made it, he motioned with a curled index finger for
Jacobs to come and fetch his ball from the cup with the ESPN cameras
rolling.
Jacobs retrieved his ball, all right, then chucked it into the crowd,
which loved every second of the frolics rarely seen in golf.
