Friday, June 01, 2001
Memorial Notebook
Wacky duds liven fairways
By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer
DUBLIN — Jesper Parnevik's purple pants or Chris Smith's “Ham Beans”? You be the judge.
Parnevik, the Swede who is the PGA Tour's eccentric fashionplate, and Smith, the journeyman pro who played his college golf at nearby Ohio State University, have dueling designers.
Well, sort of.
Parnevik, perhaps known best visually for the turned-up bill of his cap that makes him look like Eddie Haskell wearing “The Beav's” lid, wears clothes by the designer Lindenberg.
Sometimes he even makes a clothes change at the turn if he's introducing a spring collection as he did at Pebble Beach.
Smith's Ham Beans designer exists only in some people's minds as a fashion guru. The Indianapolis company, a maker of dry bean products, has a distinct name that usually catches the interest of the media, and some fans. Smith sports the name on his shirts and golf bag.
“They make 15-bean soup, things like that,” Smith explained. “The guy is a golf nut in Indiana. He drove over yesterday to watchme play my practice round. I was telling him about (all the questions) I get about it and he said, "Good, that's what we want.'”
So, why then do some people think Ham Beans is a designer?
They just do, that's all.
HARD TO PROJECT A PRO: Ohio State golf coach Jim Brown has stopped trying to predict which of his players over the years would go on to make the best pros. Sometimes his No.1 players can't get their PGA card, and other times, his No.4 players go on to make a pretty good living.
Smith was an All-America at OSU and the Big Ten Conference individual champion in 1991. But it has been a strug gle to get on the PGA Tour and stay there. He made no money there in '91, only $24,000 in '93, even less in '94 ($3,075) and $41,112 in '96. In '97, he made $120,768; in '98, $184,933; and $116,794 in '99. Last year, he played the Buy.com Tour exclusively and had seven top-10 finishes (with a record five runner-up finishes).
Until this year (No.36 on the PGA money list with $690,035), his most success was on the Buy.com Tour, where he is still tops on that tour's career money list ($605,332).
A present OSU golfer — freshman Kevin Hall, who played his high school golf at Winton Woods — has been watching the pros here. Brown said Hall gained 10-15 pounds in the weight room during the winter and his added distance put him in the lineup. He needs to work on his short game and on being able to hit a left-to-right shot as consistently as he hits his draw, Brown said.
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Memorial Notebook