"THE BRODIE"
- By Steve Yingling
- Sports Editor - Tahoe Daily Tribune
- syingling@tahoedailytribune.com
For years, RICK RHODEN has been a pain in the neck to celebrities trying to win a golf tournament.
If the former major league pitcher wasn’t adding American Century Championships or celebrity tour victories – now at 50 and counting – his name could be predictable found on the leaderboard.
But last year, the pain in the neck belonged to Rhoden.
In fact, the 54-year-old part-time PGA Champions Tour golfer wondered how many more golf tournaments were in his future. His neck and back were beginning to feel like they belonged to somebody in their 80s. He started to shank more shots than a love struck “Tin Cup.”
“I couldn’t watch myself on TV,” Rhoden said. An accident off the golf course made the winningest player in celebrity golf history beatable. In 2002, a cement truck struck the car Rhoden was driving from behind, totaling his vehicle.
“I crawled out the passenger-side door and was just glad to be alive,” Rhoden said. “Then I started having problems with my neck.”
Despite the excruciating pain caused by three herniated disks, Rhoden kept competing. Eventually, Rhoden couldn’t make his customary turn through the ball and his follow through only went as far as his waist. His game suffered, although not many people noticed.
“It was hurting so much and I was playing so lousy that I had to have it done,” Rhoden said.
So In January, Rhoden underwent surgery to fuse the offending disks, hoping that the return would be an improved quality of life. Three months after surgery, Rhoden was back to doing what he does best – winning golf tournaments. He won the Toyota Celebrity Classic the way he used to win tournaments – by a wide margin. His seven-shot victory left him encouraged about his golf future.
“I’m never going to be 100 percent again. I still have a couple disks in there that aren’t right, but I’m not hurting anymore,” he said. “I’m hitting the ball a lot better than I hit it the last three years, anyway.”
After being barred from playing in the 17th annual ACC last July, Rhoden has regained his playing privileges for 2007. NBC used the precedent of John Brodie from the 1990s and Ralph Terry from the late 1980s and early 1990s to deny Rhoden a 2006 ACC tournament invitation. Like Brodie and Terry, Rhoden rose to a higher level, earning a 2006 tour card for the 50-and-older set.
“We have a hard and fast rule that if you have a tour card from any of the major golf tours, then you’re ineligible to play in Tahoe,” said Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC Sports. “As a pro golfer, he has things available to him that other golfers don’t. We don’t think it’s fair.”
The comeback from neck surgery and his parallels to Brodie are reasons why Rhoden is this year’s recipient of “The Brodie.” The award is named after the former 49ers’ quarterback who was selected the 1970 National Football League MVP, and is annually presented at the American Century Championship.
Brodie, however, is known for more than passing a football and serving as an NFL analyst on NBC. His golfing feat from 16 years ago hasn’t been matched – not even by Rhoden. “Brodes” captured the Senior Tour’s 1991 Security Pacific Senior Classic – now known as the AT&T Classic – by outdueling George Archer and Chi Chi Rodriguez.
Five years later and without a Senior Tour playing card, Brodie was permitted to compete in celebrity golf tournaments, finishing as high as second in the 1997 championship. A major stroke nearly took Brodie’s life in 2000 and ended his competitive playing career. In recent years, however, Brodie has returned to Edgewood Tahoe to watch his son-in-law Chris Chandler and see some old friends.
“I’ve looked up to John. He’s a guy who played another sport and he won a golf tournament and that was my goal,” Rhoden said.
“I like competing against him because he’d play a good round of golf. He wouldn’t beat himself … he wouldn’t try to go over one of those Ponderosa pines; he’d play within himself and play his game.”
Brodie also showed Rhoden the kind of sportsman he was during the 1997 tournament. Trailing Rhoden by three shots late in the final round, Brodie possibly saved the leader two strokes before he attempted to chip on the 16th green. Since he was planning to chip instead of putt from his lie on the green, Rhoden needed to remove the pin to avoid a two-shot penalty.
Rhoden wound up winning by three shots over Brodie and Dan Quinn.
“That’s the first time I’ve ever done that, and John was kind enough to remind me that I had to take the pin out,” said Rhoden following his victory.
There isn’t a former pro athlete more qualified than Rhoden to equal Brodie’s senior golfing feat. Rhoden has dabbled on the Champions Tour for the past four years, using his 2006 provisional playing card to finish as high as sixth and earn a total of $142,726 – 76th on the money list. Unfortunately for Rhoden, only the top 75 money leaders were awarded playing status for the following year.
Until he receives a sponsor’s exemption or he plays his was into another Champions Tour event, Rhoden is grateful that he can return to the American Century Championship – the tournament that launched his pro golf career in 1991.
“I’m glad to come back. That’s where we all started playing real golf; it’s kind of what made us better players,” he said.
More than anything, though, Rhoden missed the players and their families.
“It was a lot more fun with all the guys I know and have been playing against for 15 years,” Rhoden said. “I’ve seen their kids grow up. Al Del Greco’s son won the Alabama state high school tournament last year, and I remember when the kid was sitting on my lap watching the fireworks.
“The beauty of the tournament is becoming friends with guys you never would have become friends with.”
Rhoden missed the tournament’s debut at Edgewood Tahoe in 1990 but was involved in one of the most talked-about finishes in tournament history the following year. A winner wasn’t determined after the regulation 54 holes, so former “Bad Boy” Bill Laimbeer and Rhoden returned to the 18th hole for a sudden-death playoff. Laimbeer went on to experience one of the most embarrassing moments of his athletic career, dunking four successive sand wedge shots into the pond guarding the 18th green, giving Rhoden one of the most lopsided playoff wins in tournament golf history.
Afterward, Rhoden started collecting championships in two-year increments, winning titles in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999, and his last coming in 2003.
“I’ve only won once since 1999. It’s not like I go out there and win all of the time,” Rhoden said. “The competition has gotten a lot better and with a chance at eagle on the par 5s on two of the final three holes, it makes for an exciting and interesting golf tournament.”
For one, two-time ACC winner Billy Joe Tolliver welcomes the return of the six-time champ, even though it could cost him a shot at his third title.
“All I know is Rick Rhoden has made me a better golfer, because, hey, if it would have just kept going, we’d all been shooting 72s around here and nobody would have ever seen red numbers,” Tolliver said.
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