Notebook: Making Cut Secondary To Ill Green

By Alex Miceli

 TOLEDO, Ohio – At age 56, Hubert Green is still playing golf with a swing that appears fashioned by someone who never took the game seriously. Yet Green, with a swing full of many moving parts, has done quite alright in his career.

Green, a product of Florida State, won 19 times on the PGA Tour, including the 1977 U.S. Open and the 1985 PGA Championship. He then made a successful transition to the Champions Tour, where he has won four times.

Next week, Green faces a transition of a different sort. On May 26, Green was diagnosed with tongue and tonsil cancer, more specifically cancer in his left tonsil. After several medical consultations it was decided that Green would undergo radiation treatment starting on June 30.

On Friday, Green chose instead to talk about his second round at the Senior Open at Inverness because he does not like to speak about his illness.

Diagnosed with cancer, Hubert Green has more than the Inverness course to battle. He made the cut at 9-over 151. (John Mummert/USGA)

"It was much easier and I played my last five holes 5 over and that’s pathetic," said Green of the morning conditions and his subsequent collapse that dropped him to 9 over and right on the cut line. "I hit in the water twice and I made two double bogeys.  I hit some dump shots on the par 5. Lack of brains, lack of concentration, lack of talent.  I almost ran out of golf balls."

Green has lost none of his sense of humor because of the cancer. While he would prefer not to talk about it, he does address what he is going through on his Web site (www.hubertgreen.com).

On the site he writes: "This is my first update. Although I do not start treatment until next week, I want to lay down some basic rules to reading my input. First, I speak in a Southern type of language. My spell-check on this great IBM (thanks to the tour, but it is free) computer has no chance. Sometimes I might put a capital S after a phrase to emphasize sarcasm. R will stand for red-neckease [S]. I will try to include some highly intelligent digs at ya'll from time to time. I will not B.S. on just how I feel. Like now I do not know if I feel the cancer in my mouth or not. After having four teeth pulled I know their have been some alterations in my mouth and I keep sending food to my gums. They do not chew too good."

Green is still brimming with good humor, and knows that next week when the tour rolls into Conover, N.C., and the Greater Hickory Classic at Rock Barn, he will be in a hospital dealing with the aftereffects of his first radiation treatment.

On the Champions Tour, illness is all too common, as is information about differing sicknesses, potential treatment and which doctors to talk to. Green has gotten a scouting report, but chooses to proceed cautiously.

 "I’m not worried about that right now; I’m worried about playing golf," said Green. "I will worry about that when I go in next week. I have two of the finest doctors I can have; I have Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus on my side as far as doctors. All I can do is be a patient."

Green has an entire tour pulling for him and he understands where he can derive support. He knows that if he weren’t playing golf, then he would be at home just thinking about next week. That would be a negative he said, and Green is anything but about being negative.

 Dependable Doyle

Allen Doyle is playing in his fifth U.S. Senior Open and with a 2-under par 69 on Friday, he is in contention – again. Doyle is at 1 under for the championship.

This is familiar territory for Doyle, who has never finished out of the top 13 at the Open and never lower than eighth in the last three years.

His U.S. Senior Open scoring average prior to this week was a sporty 70.88. Friday’s 69 leaves him at 1 over for his 18 competitive rounds in the Senior Open.

 "I don't know where I will be at the end of the day," said Doyle, who finished early. "But more than likely I will be in pretty good shape. But these are the easy days. The hard days are the weekend days, so we don't get too excited."

Doyle’s best finish on a weekend at the Senior Open was a 68-69 in 2001. Yet he was too far back to catch eventual winner Bruce Fleisher.

 Notable

John Mahaffey withdrew during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open with a back injury. Mahaffey had completed six holes and stood at 4-over par for the day before withdrawing. He shot a 6-over 77 in Thursday’s first round.

Among the players missing the cut was 2003 Senior PGA Championship

winner John Jacobs, who finished at 11 over and missed by two strokes. Joining Jacobs were former Senior Open winners Dave Stockton (11 over), Dave Eichelberger (13 over), Dale Douglass (16 over) and Larry Laoretti at 27 over.

No amateurs made the cut and the low amateur finisher was University of Florida golf coach Buddy Alexander, who finished at 10 over and missed by one stroke.

The scoring average dropped nearly one stroke in the second round, falling from 77.962 on Thursday to 76.810 on Friday. Only six players finished below par on Friday, two more than had done so on Thursday.

Alex Miceli is a free-lance writer from the Golf Press Association.