Messenger-Inquirer from Owensboro, Kentucky • 11

flUssenger-Inquirer OWENSBORO, SUNDAY, JULY 20, 1980 Gold Rush 2-B Tough Men 5-B Bid wins big 4-B Owensboro Western conquers 7-B SECTION JD New life Watson fires 64, grabs lead; Trevino four behind im arr- wtM 'Bad iron can't win the Open hitting the way I Lee Trevino keep within striking distance of Trevino. "I'm really surprised to be four strokes up. I thought Lee would play better than that." Trevino wasn't so surprised. "I could have shot 80 very easy," he said. "Even though it ws disappointing knowing how well Tom was playing, it was inevitable.

It just caught up with me. I hit the ball bad. I didn't give myself many chances." He had to scramble for par on the first two holes but, with a six-foot birdie putt on the ninth, still retained a 2-stioi lead when they went to the back nine. Trevino managed a birdie on the 11th, but Watson, playing in front of him, hit his irons close on the 11th, 12th and 13th and birdied them all. That put them in a tie.

Watson birdied the 15th from about 15 feet and Trevino managed to respond with an almost identical putt. They remained tied. But that's when the wheels came off for Lee. He lost four strokes on the next three holes. Watson scored a two-putt bir-die-4 on the 17th, then saved par from a bunker on the 18th.

Trevino, meanwhile, ws stumbling home with a bogey-bogey-bogey finish. He was bunkered on the par-3 16th and couldn't get it up and down. He hit into a fairway bunker on the 17th, took three to reach the apron of the green and three-putted from there for bogey-6 And on the last hole, he three-putted again after a poor iron shot to the fringe. "You can't win the Open playing like that," he muttered. most ground with a 63 that tied the British Open scoring record.

He one-putted 12 times, had nine 3s, didn't score a 5 and didn't have a bogey. Lyle and Mason had 70s. Stadler shot 69. Morgan, who played the front in 32 and once had a position among the leaders, took a triple-bogey 7 on the 14th, where he took three to get out of a fairway bunker, and finished with a 71. Seve Baliesteros of Spain, the defending champion and Masters titlehodlder, shot 72 as Nicklaus" partner and was at 212.

Jerry Pate, 4 under when the day's play started, also was at that figure after shooting a 74. So was PGA champion David Graham of Australia, who had a 68. While Brown said flatly he had no chance, Trevino only hinted at it. "It would take a miracle round by either one of us to catch him," Lee said. His chances, he said, could hinge on the weather.

"The guys trying to catch up have the best chance in bad weather, because the guy in front can get a little too cautious and get in trouble," Trevino said. And the forecast isn't good. It calls for brisk breezes and rain, possibly heavy, with temperatures in the 50s for Sunday's round. "I understand the forecast isn't too good," Watson said. "If the weather's good, I have to shoot in the 60s to win.

If it's bad, a round of 71 or 72 might do it." He ranked his no-bogey effort Saturday, in mild temperatures, light breezes and occasional drizzle, "among the top five rounds I've played. I thought I would have to have a very good score just to Associated Prs MUIRFIELD, Scotland Tom Watson authoritatively reasserting himself as the game's finest player, came from three shots back with a brilliant, 7-under-par 64 and assumed a 4-stroke command Saturday in the third round of the 109th British Open Golf Championship. "four strokes is an awful lot to make up on a man like Tom Watson," said a w-eary and disspirited Lee Trevino. "I can't win," said skinny Ken Brown, a 23-year-old British Ryder Cup player who has won but once in his life. "I'm not a good enough player.

The No. 1 golfer in the world is playing in front of me." Those two men, Trevino and Brown, shared second going into Sunday's final round of the chase for the most ancient, revered title golf can offer. Of the two, Trevino was the most disappointed. He took a 3-stroke lead into the day's play, watched it gradually erode In the face of relentless charge, and then lost four strokes to Tom on the last three holes. "Bad iron play," Trevino said.

"You can't win the Open championship hitting irons the way I did." Watson, a five-time winner in the United States this year and gunning for a third British Open crown, compiled a 54-hole total of 202, a distant 11 strokes under par on Muirfield's rain-softened links. Trevino, with a 71, and the mournful, sad-faced Brown, with 68, were at 206. Ben Crenshaw, a runner-up in the last two British Opens, was next at 68-208 and was the only other man with even the faintest hopes of overtaking the leader. No one hAi fffin else was within eight shots. Hubert Green, a former U.S.

Open champ, scored seven birdies and an eagle in his early round of 64 that lifted him from the depths of the field to 206 and a tie for fifth. He shared the spot with Andy Bean, who had a 70. Jack Nicklaus, who snapped his long slump with a victory in the U.S. Open last month, apparently blew any opportunity of adding this title to his record collection of major triumphs. He three-putted for bogey, each time missing from Inside three feet, on the third and fourth holes but eventually got it back to shoot par 71.

At 211 he was nine shots back. He walked off the 18th green with an expression of disgust on his face. He stood by the green for a moment, shook his head and muttered: "Awful." "After missing those putts, it just left me flat for the round," Nicklaus said later. He was tied with Isao Aoki of Japan, Scotsman Sandy Lyle, Carl Mason of England and Americans Craig Stadler and Gil Morgan. Aoki, who chased Nicklaus to the American national title, made up the ai.

TOM WATSON On your Get Go, Owensboro! wiches. Housewives are sneaking off for a quick run in the morning before the kids get up. Adds his morning partner, Craig Hopkins, Apollo High School coach and one of the area's first serious runners, "I'd guess there's 250 or so hard-core runners in Owensboro who get out everyday regardless of the weather and everything even though they may not go over two miles a day." Tom Foster, the electrician and Boston Marathoner, figured the number at between 200 arid 400 that get in a mile or two a day. "I feel like there's that many that run about all the time but they don't race much," he said. who have been away from being fit for 10 or 12 years," Tarver said.

"They'll say 'I feel like if I don't do anything I'm setting myself up for some problems later "There's definitely been an increase in interest and in our thrust into prevention programs for cardio-vascular fitness. I think general information on cardio-vascular health is more widespread now. It's the number-one cause of death and the American Heart Association has done a lot of work to publicize the risk factors. That (cardio-vascular concern) is something that strikes a lot of people in the face." Hand-in-glove with a healthy heart as a motivational factor is weight control. Says Brenda Farrell, the original Stone Creek Streaker, "I started running just to burn the calories.

I like to cook and to eat and berim too." True, running tops the list of calorie-consuming excer-cises, but Farrell found more aesthetic rewards as well. "It's something you do for yourself and of course it makes you feel better. It's been real good for our particular group. It doesn't take much gear and you can do it with just one person or three or four or five. For a lot of ladies who don't compete in tennis or other sports, running's a good thing." "There's five of us now," Farrell said of the Stone Creek women.

"I was the first, then a neighbor moved in that ran and we started running together. We sort of recruited the rest. We're doing four miles now in this heat but we were up to five or six." Farrell has been running for nearly 10 years but she is quick to point out Hoagland as the leading woman runner in the area. "Darlene is kind of an inspiration to other women. When I was injured and feeling depressed she told me to get my shoes on and get back on the road.

She's so enthusiastic." Hoagland, a physical education teacher, is aware of that role. "Here in Owensboro," she said, "I feel I should set an example as far as my age group goes. That's (a high level of fitness) what I believe in. I've gotten several people to run, both male an female." While she is expected to win her age group without fail in local races Hoagland also seeks tougher competition and enjoys seeing an increasing number of women actively participating. "It's just getting started here for women," she said.

But in Nashville two years ago, Hoagland reported, 835 women ran in the (6.2 miles) Bonnie Belle event. Last year the number was up to 1,400. COMING MONDAY: Owensboro area offers variety of events for runners. By MIKE STRANGE MaiMn9r-lnqulrar First in a series As dawn breaks over Stone Creek Park in southeast Owensboro, it often catches more than just a milkman or paperboy stirring. While most of the lights are still off and most of the eyes still shut, the Stone Creek Streakers are at work.

Or at play, depending on how you look at it. For a related story, see John Lott on page 3-B. Five women, ranging in age from 36 to 53, have already rolled out of bed, slipped into running clothes and rendezvoused to begin their daily run of from four to six miles. On the other side of town, the first light might find a pair of men, mid-30s, pausing in their hour run for a cup of hot chocolate at a Tamarack Road convenience store. Later, the setting sun, saying goodbye to Moreland Park for the day, will most likely fall upon a lean 45-year-old electrician stopping for a drink of water on his snappy eight-mile jaunt.

In between, the celestial observer will have witnessed scores of Daviess Countians of both sexes and of all ages and sizes taking to the streets and roads to plod, to jog or to gallop one mile or 15. And after the sun has gone on to other time zones, the moon will help light the way for a few more. The exact number of runners in the Owensboro area is hard to pin down they don't have to buy a license or register at the court house. But what is known is that there are a lot more than there used to be, they are coming from a broader spectrum of the population, and there's probably going to be even more in the future as what is a national trend continues to gain recruits in the Owensboro area. "There's gobs of people running here now," says Tony Rowe, a Daviess County High School track and cross country coach who practices what he preaches to the tune of about 70 miles a week.

"There's probably 500 to 1,000 people running in one form or another although you won't see them race or anything." Other estimates were somewhat lower, but the variance in the definition of running should be taken Into account. "You're not seeing everybody in the races" said Arthur Marx, one of the hot chocolate drinkers who averages around 50 miles a week. "I'd say there's 400 or 500 people running and add more to Include the high school kids (in organized programs). I see a lot of older people out just to run a mile or so." Why do they do it? Why do they encourage pain, brave inclement weather and submit their feet to such a horrible pounding (each foot strikes the ground 800 times in a single mile) Volumes have been written in answer to that question. One of running's top gurus, Dr.

George Sheehan, in his book, "Running and Being," put it this way: "Running gives me a sense of controlling my own life. I feel I'm doing something for myself, not depending on anyone to do it for me. I like the finiteness of my runs, the fact they have clear beginning and end. I set a goal and achieve it There isn't much freedom in our lives anymore. Running gives you freedom.

A sampling of serious Owensboro runners who may or may not have read Sheehan offered similar explanations. Says Marx, "It gives me a chance to get out my competitive urge in a legal way. It makes me feel fantastic. It's a carthartic effect and I really look forward to it. I don't do it well but it's something I'm obsessed with." Darlene Hoagland, 30, does do it well and she also enjoys a catharsis-type feeling.

"It gives you a lot of time to yourself," she explained. "It helps me relax. If I have a headache I go run. It kind of cleans you out, with all the sweating you do." For Foster, who picked up the habit from his daughter about eight years ago, it's also a chance to get away from it all. "Whenever you have a bad day it feels pretty good to run.

It relieves pressure when you can get out and go. I feel healthier and like I can get more things accomplished when I work. "And," he added with a laugh, "it hurts so bad you forget about everything else." For nine-year-old Brian Pate, already a four-year veteran, it's something to do. "I saw other people running and I wanted to do it to," he stated. For Hopkins, who is in his 21st year of running, it satisfies an urge.

"If I don't run I feel absolutely crappy like a drug addict. But the other thing is that I feel so good about it. If I screw up everything else teaching, coaching, being a father if I dan get out and run a little bit I feel better. It's as much psychological as it is physical. The health thing is the least of my worries." But for a lot of runners, the health thing is the primary motivator.

So says Steve Tarver, physical fitness director at the Family Y. "I get a lot of feedback from men who are from 30 to 40 While Owensboro isn't exactly set to challenge Eugene, (where an estimated 10,000 of the 90,000 inhabitants run) as the running capital of the country, It is representative of the so-called running boom of the past few years. There was a day not many years ago when the sight of a sweaty figure in colorful shoes pounding up and down Frederica Street was an oddity. "This sounds strange," Hopkins, 34, recalled, "but when I moved here in 1971 Chuck Gullo and I were about the only people around here running. You never saw anybody out on the roads.

You could tell who a runner was from pretty far away, if you saw anybody at all, because you'd know who it was. Now, you go out and if you see five runners you may not recognize any of them." Gullo was the Daviess County High School track coach at the time, and he, Hopkins, other coaches like Senior High's Bob Puckett, and a few pioneer runners formed the acorn that eventually grew into a sizable tree. "Gradually," Hopkins continued, "we started to see more and more people come out on the roads. And, too, the high school runners started drifting out on the roads during the summer." Rowe, who ran track for Senior High, concurred. "You hardly ever saw anyone out who wasn't connected with a school.

Then the area started to pick up a few road runs, the health kick got going and it just boomed after that. The last three years, it's been going berserk. You can run a race about every weekend now. "The reason you've got a group of older runners now is that before, after they got out of high school there wasn't anywhere to run. Now, with so many road races around, they can still have a running season if they want to.

There's more carry-over now." But a lot of people are lacing up their $40 training shoes now who never even sat in the stands at a high school track meet, much less ran in one. In addition to the mainstream of graduated athletes trying to stay in shape, businessmen and women from all walks of life are opting for a couple of miles for lunch instead of a couple of sand Jones resigns as AD at KWC a very close part of Kentucky Wes-leyan's family of faculty and staff over the last 12 years and we regret the loss of Coach Jones. Jones was could not be reached for comment Saturday night. KWC President Luther White accepted Jones' letter of resignation Saturday and said: "Coach Jones has given Kentucky Wesleyan 12 productive years of basketball. He and his family have been as athletic director.

Jones, who had been with KWC since 1968, has accepted a position as head basketball coach at Campbell County High School in Alexandria. The 40-year-old Jones, who guided the Panthers to a 119-90 after taking over as head coach in 1973, was named the NCAA Division II Coach of the Year in his first season for leading Wesleyan to its fourth national championship. Bob Jones, who was fired as head basketball coach at Kentucky Wes-leyan College on Dec. 19, severed all professional ties with the school Saturday when he resigned his position.