OCR Text |
Show Fleck and Mahaffey join Jeremy roster Well-known senior golfers Jack Fleck and John Mahaffey have added their names to the star-studded roster for the Shootout at Jeremy Ranch, said Lanny Nielsen, head professional. The $450,000 best-ball tournament, tourna-ment, which will be played Aug. 20-26 on the Arnold Palmer-designed course, teams members of the PGA Tour with players from the PGA Senior Tour, with $60,000 going to the first-place team. Fleck and Mahaffey will be joining the likes of Palmer, who has not yet selected a PGA Tour partner. Other golfing illuminaries will include the team of Billy Casper and Johnny Miller and the probable pairing of Miller Barber and Ben Crenshaw. All will be pitted against the defending championship team of Don January and Mike Sullivan. With the addition of Fleck, the tournament gains the winner of the 1955 U.S. Open. Fleck, 63, gained national prominence in that Open when he rallied to tie the immortal Ben Hogan in the 72-hole tournament tourna-ment and then defeated him by three strokes in an 18-hole playoff the following day. Fleck, who also won the 1960 Phoenix Open and the 1961 Bakersfield Open, currently ranks 20th on the Senior Tour money list with $34,959. His lone triumph on the senior circuit was his 1979 championship, although he also won the 1979 World Seniors, a non-sanctioned event. Fleck will team with two-time PGA tour winner Vic Regalado. The 37-year old Regalado, a former Utah Open victor, won the 1974 Pleasant Valley Classic and it appeared that the Tijuana, Mexico, native would become one of the leading foreigners on the Tour. But a right-thumb injury in early 1975 let him unable to practice for six months. He won again in 1978, capturing the Ed McMahon-Quad Cities Open and he nearly won it again in 1981, but lost to Dave Ban-in Ban-in a playoff. In Mahaffey, the tournament can boast the 1978 PGA champion and one of the accurate players on the tour. He will pair with Gene littler, who had initially invited Andy North to be his partner. But North's victory in the 1985 U.S. Open qualifies him to play in the World Series of Golf at famed Firestone Country Club, which is held the same weekend as the Shootout. The 37-year-old Mahaffey has played well the last two years, finishing 21st on the 1984 PGA Tour money list with $252,548, including a first in the Bob Hope Desert Classic. This season Mahaffey earned a second-place finish with $145,795 in official earnings good for 24th on the money list. Mahaffey's most memorable win was his 1978 PGA playoff victory over Tom Watson and Jerry Pate. Boasting one of the most accurate games on the tour, Mahaffey threatened to move to the forefront. The week after the PGA Championship Cham-pionship he added a win in the American Optical Classic, and earned a spot on the prestigious Ryder Cup. Until last year he had been frequently plagued by various physical ailments. But the Texan is healthy again and making his climb back toward the top. Nielsen said the Cadillac Motor Division, through the Wasatch Front Cadillac Dealers of Utah, will offer a new Cadillac to a professional who scores a hole-in-one during the two closing rounds of the Shootout. The first two to score an ace on the 4th, 8th, 11th or 17th holes will be eligible elig-ible to win the Cadillacs. |