GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : Kite’s Back Still Not Feeling Down to Par

In an understatement, Tom Kite said it wasn’t the best timing in the world, referring to his back injury at the recent Masters tournament.

Kite said he was playing the best golf of his life.

He won his first major tournament of his 20-year career, the U.S. Open, last June at Pebble Beach.

Instead of fading from contention after winning the Open, as Curtis Strange and Payne Stewart did, the 43-year-old Kite stayed on a high plateau at the outset of the year.

He finished second in the tour’s opening event, the Tournament of Champions at La Costa with a 64 in the final round on a muddy course. He won the 90-hole Bob Hope tournament with a record score of 35 under par. He came out of the pack at the L.A. Open to win by three strokes on the final day.

Now he was at the prestigious Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga.. where he was regarded as one of the favorites. He had strained his back while at an amusement park with his children a few weeks earlier, but he said his back felt fine after a practice round.

Then, while on the driving range on Tuesday preceding the tournament, he suffered a painful back spasm.

After hours of therapy, he was able to play, but he had missed valuable practice time and he was soon to miss the cut, shooting 73-78--151.

Now the question is, when will he play again?

After a visit to Dr. Robert Watkins of the Centinela Medical Center, it was determined that he had two herniated discs in his back.

“I’m going through therapy five times a week, some cortisone shots in the back, stretching exercise, icing, practically everything,” Kite said by phone last week from his home in Austin, Tex.

“I haven’t played yet. We’re not in a super big hurry. We’re trying to get it healed up as best we can. He hasn’t given me a time frame.

“I’m feeling pretty good. Of course, I’m not doing anything to aggravate my back. I’m very cautious and careful and hopefully it’s healing.”

As for being unable to perform at his best in the Masters, Kite acknowledged the bad timing, but added:

“The main thing is not to worry about any one particular tournament, but to get rehab and get back to where I can play again.

“That’s only one golf tournament. Yes, it’s an important golf tournament and you want to play well in it, but it’s only one out of a bunch.”

The earliest estimate of when Kite will play again is the BellSouth tournament in Atlanta May 6-9, where he is the defending champion.

Even though England’s Nick Faldo finished 16 strokes behind Masters champion Bernhard Langer a few weeks ago, the British press was crowing over a European player winning the event five of the past six years.

“Bernhard Langer, the man laughed at by the Americans for his famous missed putt in the last Ryder Cup, got his revenge,” the Daily Mirror trumpeted. “Langer rammed the Americans’ taunts back down their throats with a brilliant four-stroke victory.”

In the Daily Mail, columnist Ian Wooldridge took up the chauvinistic chant, hailing the German’s composure in the face of a reportedly hostile crowd.

“To be a foreigner leading the field going into the last round of the Masters is to need all the succor you can get,” Wooldridge wrote. “The hostility hangs out there like a heat haze. You can feel it among the vast galleries. You can hear it in the damning-with-faint-praise of the TV commentators. This is an American event, built on American traditions which for decades dictated that an American had to win it.”

Presumably, Wooldridge watched the Masters on television. If he had been there, he would have heard the crowd cheering Langer as he walked up the 18th fairway with victory secured.

This jingoistic media approach probably will be at fever pitch when the American team defends the Ryder Cup against the Europeans Sept. 24-26 at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England.

Chip Beck is a cheerful, optimistic player who isn’t controversial to any extent. Yet, the fact that he laid on the par-five 15th hole while trailing Langer by three strokes in the last round of the Masters, has involved him in a firestorm of criticism by the media.

“I didn’t want to throw the tournament away on one shot,” said Beck, who had 236 yards to the front of the green, guarded by a pond, and 250 to the pin. There was a slight wind in his face.

As it turned out, Beck parred the hole while Langer made birdie to give him a four-stroke lead.

Even though a majority of writers criticized Beck for wimping out, some defenders say he played the percentages.

When asked his opinion on Beck’s options, Kite said:

“I don’t like to second-guess, (but) you’re only going to play in a limited number of major championships in your lifetime and, in those major championships, you’re only going to have so many opportunities. Second place doesn’t mean anything in a major championship.

“A player in that position has to do everything he can to try to win that golf tournament. That late in the tournament, some risks are more justified than they would have been earlier in the tournament.

“I’ll qualify that by saying Chip felt like he was doing the thing that would give him the best opportunity to win the tournament.

“It was not as aggressive as a lot of players would have played, and probably not as aggressive as I would have attempted. He didn’t feel he could knock it on the green, although the yardage would indicate he could.”

Golf Notes

The second annual Shoemaker Foundation Celebrity golf tournament will be held May 11 at the Tustin Ranch Golf Club . . . The St. Francis High Boosters Club tournament is scheduled Monday at Via Verde Country Club in San Dimas . . . The seventh annual La Purisima Invitational tournament will be held May 1-2 at the La Purisima course in Lompoc . . . The second annual Erik Kramer celebrity tournament is scheduled May 10 at Porter Valley CC in Northridge. Kramer, a quarterback for the Detroit Lions, formerly played at Burroughs High and Pierce College . . . The Cravens Invitational Tournament is scheduled May 12-16 at San Gabriel Country Club.

The Amateur Golfers Assn. of America will hold its next event Monday at Hacienda CC. . . . The 17th annual “Help the Children” golf tournament will be held May 17 at Friendly Hills CC in Whittier . . . The 10th annual Alisa Ann Ruch charity tournament is scheduled June 14 at Brookside CC . . . The Jurupa Hills golf course in Riverside will host the first amateur senior championship June 22 . . . The Bobby Hatfield Celebrity tournament will be held July 12 at Los Coyotes CC. Proceeds from the event will benefit the Lupus Foundation of Southern California . . . Shackelford Golf, founded by Lynn Shackelford, former UCLA basketball standout and Laker announcer, is scheduled to take over management of the nine-hole, par-three Sinaloa Golf Course in Simi Valley on May 1 . . . The Pacific 10 championship will be held Monday through Wednesday at the Sandpiper Golf Club in Goleta.