Friday, August 31, 2001
11 ex-winners in Kroger Classic today
By John Erardi and Michael Perry
The Cincinnati Enquirer
All 11 previous Kroger Senior Classic champions are in the field for the tournament that begins today on the Grizzly Course at The Golf Center at Kings Island.
Nobody has won the event twice. Eight other players who have finished as runners-up are also here. The winners: Jim Dent (1990), Al Geiberger ('91), Gibby Gilbert ('92), Simon Hobday ('93), Jim Colbert ('94), Mike Hill ('95), Isao Aoki ('96), Jay Sigel ('97), Hugh Baiocchi ('98), Gil Morgan ('99) and Hubert Green (2000).
The Grizzly turf is still relatively soft but firming up a bit for today's first round — perfect for a right-to-left driver and a gravedigger's shovel.
Time was when boyhood buddies Allen Doyle and Richie Hebner would have had a field day in those conditions: gravedigger Hebner, because he liked the soil workable but not mushy, and Doyle, because it is in Hebner's cemetery that Doyle crafted the long, low draw that runs forever and yet stays in play. The cemetery was across the street from Doyle's house. The nearest golf course was 25 miles away.
Doyle's landings and Hebner's diggings never precisely intersected. But the two boys from Norwood, Mass., went on to athletic fame — Hebner, first, as a hitter for the Pittsburgh Pirates of the 1970s (aka “The Lumber Company,”), and then Doyle, who is among the favorites to win the Kroger Senior Classic.
Now it is Doyle's swing that is the stuff of legend, because while it was fashioned from a junior's love of hockey and his many hours perfecting a low, screaming slap shot, it is also the stuff of everyman. A duf fer can glean more from watching Doyle than any of the sweet-swinging pros out here.
Shot after shot, he repeats his short, compact backswing with the precision of a drill press. It isn't the prettiest, but it's proof that “short” greatly increases the likelihood of “square” contact. Ever played golf with a former high-level baseball pitcher who understands the importance of repeatability of a motion to deliver a ball to the intended target? Invariably, he uses a short backswing.
“Most people could benefit by shortening their swings,” Doyle said. “You'll hit the ball straighter and strike the ball first more times than not. If a person's goal is to reduce their score from 90 to 85, a (shorter swing) would get them there. But that person wants to go from 90 down to 75 and he doesn't think a (shorter) swing is the way to do it.”
Doyle crafted a low slap shot because even if it didn't go in the net, there was a great chance of a tip-in. His single-season Division II assists record by a defensemen (Norwich University) held up for eight years.
“With practice, I learned how high I could raise my hands on the (backswing of the slap shot) to produce the low shot,” he said. “The high shot looks and sounds great screaming over the net into the glass, but you can't get a tip-in off it. Those same guys wanted a whippy stick for power; I used a shorter stick, firm as I could find, to hit it low with control.
“My philosophy was to never try to impress anybody I was playing against or in front of, because I didn't have that ability. I had to concentrate on results.”
On the senior tour, Doyle is getting results. He's second in points to leader Bruce Fleisher in the race for the Schwab Cup, which goes to the tour's leading player. There are only nine senior events remaining.
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11 ex-winners in Kroger Classic today
