Golf / Shav Glick : PGA Returns to Toledo With the Hinkle Tree Still Standing in Way

When the 69th PGA Championship gets underway Thursday at the Inverness Club in Toledo, it will be a shame if Lon Hinkle isn’t there.

Hinkle was the man who made the 1979 U.S. Open interesting, the last time that Inverness hosted a major golf championship. Hale Irwin won the tournament, staggering home with a double bogey-bogey finish for a final-nine 40 to beat Gary Player and Jerry Pate by two strokes, but it was Hinkle who is best remembered.

Who could forget the Hinkle Tree, a 25-foot spruce planted near the eighth tee in the middle of the tournament by the U.S. Golf Assn. to negate a brilliant discovery made by the former San Diego State golfer. While playing in the first round, Hinkle discovered a method of taking a shortcut on the 528-yard, par-5 eighth hole by driving down the adjacent 17th fairway--more than 100 yards left of the eighth-hole landing area planned by course architects George and Tom Fazio.

The eighth was a new hole on the revamped Inverness course, and before Hinkle’s discovery, no one had noticed that two solidly struck iron shots could carry the green via the shortcut, while two wood shots could come up short by playing the hole the conventional way.

“I was standing on the tee waiting to drive when I saw the players ahead of us lining up their second shot,” Hinkle said at the time. “They were standing at right angles to me, so I cast my eyes in that direction. I said to Chi Chi (Rodriguez, his playing partner), ‘Is that the green over there?’ He said it was, so I said, ‘Well, why don’t we go that way?’ ”

Hinkle was an early starter, so no one was on the 17th fairway yet. Hinkle aimed down that fairway with a 1-iron. When he reached his ball, he had only a 2-iron shot to reach the green for a two-putt birdie. Rodriguez missed the green and settled for a par.

Their third playing partner was a little-known Australian named Greg Norman, playing in his first major U.S. championship. He made a par the conventional way.

The next day, for the second round, golfers were greeted by the Hinkle Tree, hastily purchased from a local Toledo nursery and planted in the middle of the night. When Hinkle reached the eighth tee, a huge grin spread over his cherubic face.

“What is that, a Hinkleberry?” he asked a marshal. Defiantly, Hinkle ripped his tee shot through an opening between the new tree and a tall maple and, again from the 17th fairway, made another birdie.

“I wasn’t trying to show up the USGA or anything like that, but the truth is the hole wasn’t very well planned out,” Hinkle said.

When players reach the eighth tee in the PGA this week, the spruce will still be there, and the hole will play about the same as it did seven years ago.

Whether Hinkle will be there or not depends on how hot he might get today in the final round of the Western Open at Butler National. He is 111th on the PGA money list and needs to win about $25,000 today to qualify for the tournament. He is 11 strokes back.

Golf Notes

For the women: The Women’s SoCal Golf Assn.’s 85th annual Southern championship will be played Monday through Friday at the Virginia CC in Long Beach. A qualifying round Monday will cut the field to 16 for match play with a 36-hole final on Friday. Millie Stanley of Wilshire, who defeated Marianne Towersey of Santa Ana in last year’s final, will defend her title. Other former winners entered include Ruth Miller and Candy Meyers of California, Jean Damerel of Annandale, Marie Gray of Big Canyon and Donna Travis of Wilshire. Also Monday is team competition for the Anne Trabue Trophy, which goes to the team of two players from the same club with the lowest combined net score. Hiroko Ito and Gloria Leary of Riviera won last year. . . . The L.A. Senior women’s championship has been rescheduled for Aug. 21-22. Millie Stanley is also defending champion in the seniors event.

Seventeen Southland players, headed by Junior World winners Michele Lyford of Redlands and Brandie Burton of Rialto, are entered in the U.S. Girls Junior championship, which starts Monday at Marysville, Calif. Lyford won the 15-17 division and Burton the 13-14. The following week, the U.S. Women’s Amateur will be played at the Pasatiempo GC in Santa Cruz. Among the exempt players are Curtis Cup member Cindy Scholefield of Los Angeles CC and former junior star Pearl Sinn of Bellflower. . . . Group Fore, the women’s mini-tour, will play a pro-am today at San Bernardino GC as a prelude to the 54-hole Rose of August tournament on the same course Monday through Wednesday.

Jackie Steinmann of UCLA was named to receive the inaugural Gladys Palmer Award which goes to the coach who has contributed the most to the sport at the college level during a career. Steinmann graduated from UCLA in 1952 and has been head coach there for nine years. She was recently reelected president of the National Women’s Golf Coaches Assn. Gladys Palmer is a former coach at Ohio State who organized the first women’s college championship. . . . Fred Sherman’s annual North San Diego County women’s championship will be Monday and Tuesday at Escondido CC. Susan Giordani of Carlsbad, who plays out of the Marine Memorial Club at Camp Pendleton, is defending champion.

Wyn Murphy, course manager at Griffith Park and a veteran of 20 years on L.A. municipal courses, has retired. . . . Amateur qualifying for the Aug. 21-25 Queen Mary Open will be Monday at Lakewood, site of the $65,000 tournament. . . . Mike Callaghan, president of the SoCal Leftys, won the state southpaw championship with a 71-72--143 at Paso Robles. The leftys play Aug. 10 at Shandon Hills in San Bernardino. . . . A record 1,630 entries have been received for the $325,000 PGA Club Professional championship Oct. 2-5, which will be the first major tournament held at the new PGA West course in La Quinta.

The California Open will be played Aug. 12-15 at the Mission Hills and La Quinta Hotel courses. Brad Greer, playing in his first professional tournament, won last year and will be back to defend his title. . . . Regional qualifying for the U.S. Amateur will be Monday, Aug. 11, at Las Posas CC in Camarillo and Big Canyon CC in Newport Beach. Nine players will qualify at each site for the tournament Aug. 26-31 at Shoal Creek, Ala.