Wyrick back to school

BRYCE ALDERTON

Eighty players and only seven spots.

Those are numbers Keith Wyrick, a starter at Newport Beach Golf

Course, will contemplate the next two months as he attempts to earn

one of seven spots on the Champions Tour, also known as the Senior

PGA Tour.

Wyrick, who will turn 50 in December, sent $2,500 along with an

application to the tour earlier this week for the 72-hole qualifying

tournament in Southern California -- Nov. 4-7 at Oak Valley Golf Club

in Beaumont -- that will feature 18 players. The top 16 from

Beaumont, along with each of the four other qualifying sites (one in

San Antonio, Texas, and three in Florida) will advance to the

national finals, held Nov. 18-21 in Coral Gables, Fla. Seven out of

the 80 golfers assembled in Coral Gables will then have the right to

call themselves Champions Tour members.

If Wyrick were to make the tour, he would join a select few --

Allen Doyle and Tom Wargo -- who didn’t play on the PGA Tour prior to

joining the Champions circuit, for golfers age 50 and older. Doyle

won this year’s Fleet Boston Classic and ranks sixth on the tour’s

2003 money list with $1.1 million. Wargo ranks 31st in career

earnings on the Champions Tour.

“There are two different classes: guys who played on [the PGA

Tour] and guys like myself who maybe were steelworkers or car

salesmen,” Wyrick said. “[The Champions Tour] is definitely making it

rough to earn a spot out there. The cards are so limited.”

The Champions Tour used to issue 16 cards, Wyrick said.

“Doyle was very dominating for three years,” he added.

Wyrick has been no slouch himself in 2003. He has two first-place

finishes, two seconds, two thirds and a fifth in seven tournaments on

the 47-Plus Tour in Arizona. Champions Tour members Danny Edwards and

Jose Maria Canizares have played on the 47-Plus circuit. Wyrick has

won a total of seven times in Arizona.

“In the last three years I have averaged 40 tournaments a year,”

Wyrick said. “I view it as raising a family and making money while

going to college. It is three years to work on your game, see what

the competition is like and determine what state your game is in.”

The average check Wyrick has received can total $5,000, with

second place receiving $1,200 or $1,000 and $350 going to the

third-place finisher.

“If you are not in the top five, you are not doing what needs to

be done to survive out there,” Wyrick said.

Wyrick, who has also competed on the Cadillac Tight Lies and Sun

Belt Tours, said if he can average 70, he should qualify for the

Champions Tour. His scoring average is 69.2.

“Par is 288, so a 280 would probably get on the Champions Tour,”

he said. “But I don’t like to look at numbers ... just take it one

shot at a time.”

Doyle credits his improved play to new clubs -- made by Parallax

Access Golf. The irons have a bend in the bottom of the shaft that

Wyrick said has made for a higher ball flight.

He also thanks Chris Jones and Steve Lane, co-owners of Newport

Beach Golf Course, who have adjusted Wyrick’s schedule to allow the

17-year course employee to pursue a novel endeavor.

Wyrick, whose family includes his 3 1/2-year-old son Robbie, who

is autistic, wife Peggy and stepson Lawrence, traveled with him to

Arizona for four of the seven tournaments. But now that school has

begun for Peggy, a teacher, and the children, they will stay at the

family’s home in Huntington Beach and root for Keith.

School has also begun for Wyrick. He played this week at Bear

Creek Golf Club in Murietta and at Oak Valley, gearing up for his

biggest exam yet.

“It will be a very difficult thing,” Wyrick said of earning his

tour card. “I think about it quite a bit at night. I plan on playing

through next year and if I don’t make it, I can get a job at

Wal-Mart.”

Hopefully we will be talking of Wyrick’s first Champions Tour

events this time next year.