Golf: Vanishing act

Richard Dunn

One of these days you might be hearing or reading about how Dennis

Paulson just slipped away from professional golf through the backdoor

without making a peep.

Even with more birdies in him, and eligibility down the road on the

Senior PGA Tour when Paulson turns 50, he’ll simply disappear.

“I want to be retired by then and watch my kids grow,” Paulson said. “I

love my job ... but I only want to do this for as long as I have to.”

Paulson, 37, and his wife, Linda, are expecting their second baby boy on

May 14 and are building a home in Encinitas just above La Costa.

The former Costa Mesa High standout who grew up playing at Santa Ana

Country Club, where he’s an honorary member, would like to cash out of

the PGA Tour by age 45.

“But it depends,” Paulson said. “If I win six tournaments in the next six

years, you might never see me again. It’s a living, it’s a job and I

enjoy what I do, but it’s still a job. I try to put the hours in when I’m

not working -- you’ve got to treat it like a job to improve.

“But I’d like to retire like anybody else. Wouldn’t you? ... if I don’t

have to play golf, then I’ll cut back and spend more time with my family.

I’d love to be a professional dad. That’s a lot greater than a

professional golfer.”

Paulson, who said his father spent a lot of time with him growing up and

even coached his baseball team, was the star of the first round at the

Masters last week, shooting 4-under-par 68 in a round that included one

eagle and five birdies in his “maiden voyage” at Augusta National Golf

Club.

Among other things, Paulson can tell his first son, Dillon, who turns 3

on June 10, and his second when he grows up that he once led the Masters

-- perhaps golf’s greatest and most prestigious championship.

“The media always likes to make something a lot bigger than they really

are, but what we do is not rocket science, it’s not what it’s all about.

It’s just golf,” Paulson said. “I’ve been doing it long enough to know

that what we do is basically entertainment.

“To be leading any tournament is exciting, but any tournament doesn’t

matter until the final round. Like the old cliche: You can never win a

golf tournament on Thursday, but you can definitely lose it.”

Paulson, who is taking this week off from the tour, finished an

impressive tied for 14th at the Masters, shooting 73-72 on the weekend to

remain in big paycheck range after carding a 76 in the second round to

fall out of contention.

Paulson, who earned $80,500 for his Masters showing, enjoyed a

breakthrough year in 1999, finishing 37th on the PGA Tour’s money list

from 317th in 1998.

A former U.S. long-driving champion, Paulson considered giving up golf

before playing on the Asian Tour in the early 1990s.

He qualified for the PGA Tour in 1994 and ’95 and played on the Nike Tour

in 1997 and ’98. His best finish this year on the PGA Tour prior to the

Masters was a tie for 18th at the Nissan Open in Los Angeles.

Speaking of the Masters, you might have noticed that CBS did without

wisecracking announcer and former Toshiba Senior Classic champion Gary

McCord, who got expelled by the Augusta National leadership in 1994 for

his repugnant remarks about the golf course.

McCord, this year’s keynote speaker at the $100-a-plate community

breakfast during Toshiba week, flustered Augusta’s powerful, deep-rooted

members by describing some of the difficult conditions at Augusta with

the words “bikini wax” and “body bags” the year Jose Maria Olazabal won

his first of two green jackets.

“They didn’t like my attitude -- and I don’t blame them,” McCord, beloved

in Newport Beach, said at this year’s Toshiba.

Also in 1994, McCord mooned the Snoopy II Blimp from his television perch

at the World Series of Golf.

During a commercial break, McCord looked at the monitor in his tower and

noticed a camera was on him. He looked around, but couldn’t see a camera

anywhere. There were no greenside cameras, none under the TV tower and

none hiding off to the side in the rough.

Finally, he realized it was a camera aboard the blimp high above the golf

course, which was panning in on him.

“They’ve got a camera that can catch a flea on a rat’s (tail end),”

McCord said. “You know, you’ve really got to bend over if you want to

give a good one.”

The CBS director told McCord that, even though it was during commercial

time, his mooning appeared throughout the country club television

monitors in hospitality tents and the clubhouse.

“Three ladies were having lunch and just threw up,” McCord said.

Former Newport Beach Country Club head pro Monty Blodgett won the

61-and-over division last week in the 36-hole Southern California PGA

Yamaha Seniors event at Soule Park and Ojai Valley Inn golf courses.

Blodgett shot 70-72 for a 142, one stroke ahead of runner-up Tommy Jacobs

(Bel Air Greens), and won $285. Blodgett and Tom Barber of Griffith Park

finished third in the team competition at 129 and shared $420.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.