Stadler Is Not Ready to Throw in the Towel, or Ever Use One Again

No matter how wet the grass is this morning at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, don’t look for Craig Stadler to be reaching for a towel.

That’s because when Stadler and the rest of his fivesome tee off at 7 a.m. in the celebrity pro-am prelude to the 61st Los Angeles Open, the memory of his costly weekend faux pas will be all too painful.

“It was not an easy lesson to take, but life goes on,” Stadler said of the mistake he made on Saturday while playing in the Shearson Lehman Brothers Andy Williams Open at Torrey Pines Golf Course in La Jolla.

Stadler used a towel to kneel on while hitting an awkward shot from beneath a pine tree. Use of the towel, the PGA determined, constituted an illegal improvement of his stance and required that Stadler penalize himself two strokes.

Since Stadler did not realize he had broken any rule, he did not do so, subsequently turning in an incorrect scorecard. He was disqualified at the end of play the next day, after the matter had been brought to the attention of PGA officials by television viewers who had seen the shot replayed on a highlight film.

Had he not been ousted, Stadler would have finished tied for second place behind winner George Burns and would have earned $37,333.33.

At the time, Stadler appeared more upset at himself than at the PGA, but also suggested that had anyone else known the rule they might have warned him.

“Neither of my playing partners said anything about it,” he said. “There must have been 100 people standing around the tree and nobody said anything. It’s unfortunate. If somebody knew it (the rule), I wish they would have said something.”

Stadler, who finished second in a playoff to Corey Pavin in the Hawaiian Open two weeks ago, has not won on the Tour since he took the Byron Nelson in 1984. He finished 53rd on the PGA money list last season.

This season, he is off to a promising start, the misfortune at Torrey Pines notwithstanding.

In the year’s first four tournaments, he earned $67,238, placing him 14th on the money list. He would have been eighth with more than $104,000 in earnings had it not been for the disqualification.

On Sunday, he birdied the final hole to finish with an 18-under par total of 270, and, although the towel wiped his score from the record book, he can be considered to be back in form.

“I can see some shots I haven’t seen for a while coming back,” Stadler said. “I’m feeling comfortable where I am right now.”

He won’t soon forget what happened at the ’87 Andy Williams Open, but as he said before Tuesday’s practice round at Riviera, “winning in Los Angeles would make it all better.”

Play in the the L.A. Open begins Thursday morning, with the winner getting $108,000.