Patrick Reusse: Senior pro's impact still resonates

Ron Streck was 24 and in his third year on the PGA Tour in 1979. He was in the field for the season-opening Tournament of Champions after winning the San Antonio Texas Open the previous season.

The tournament was played at Rancho La Costa, the resort in Carlsbad, Calif. Streck was on the practice range when a friend of Gary Adams approached with a request.

Adams had mortgaged his house to finance a revolutionary idea in clubmaking: a metal wood. And his pal on the range asked Streck to take a couple of swings with Adams' driver.

Streck has described the scene that followed often over the past three decades:

"Back then, the range had a fence about 260 yards away, and the balls usually hit 10 yards short of the fence. The first time I hit the metal club, the ball flew all the way to the fence. I immediately stuck it in my bag as a 2-wood."

Streck also painted it black and put a wrap around the clubhead, out of fear that the club would be declared illegal.

In 1980, Streck was at Jack Nicklaus' tournament. He set up near Jack on the range and started hitting balls with the metal club.

"It was so much louder," he said. "Jack started looking around. Finally, he said, 'What's that ... let me see that.' He stared at it and then said, 'That looks like a practice club. I'll never use one of these.' "

On Saturday, Streck shot an 8-under-par 64 in the second round of the 3M Championship at TPC Twin Cities. He was in a bunker on the 18th hole and ready to hit at 2:38 p.m., when the weather-warning horn was sounded, stopping play.

Streck marked a ball in the bunker for the first time in his long playing career, waited nearly three hours and then found the sand in that bunker had turned to concrete. His sand blast came out hot, went 40 feet past and he two-putted.

That put him at 10-under 134 for 36 holes and in contention for a strong finish that could improve his playing status for the remainder of the Champions Tour season.

Streck's boldest footnote in golf history is that he was the first player to win a PGA Tour event with a metal wood -- the 1981 Houston Open. He had a 62 in Houston, and a 62 when he won at San Antonio in 1978.

He had a 62 in his lone victory on the Champions Tour at the 2005 Commerce Bank event on Long Island in New York City. He's had five 62s on the PGA or Champions Tours.

Is that why his clubhouse nickname is The Streaker?

"Probably, but I don't always shoot 62 when I win," he said. "I didn't shoot 62 when I won in Morocco."

Streck also didn't shoot 62 when he won on the Hogan Tour (now Nationwide) in 1993 in Yuma, Ariz. Add it up -- three here, one in Morocco in an unofficial European Tour event -- and that's victories on four tours.

"Five,'' he said. ''I also won an invitational in Japan."

Streck had exempt status on the Champions Tour until this year. He's now a qualifier. He is in the 3M field through a sponsor's exemption from tournament director Hollis Cavner.

Streck played in three pro-ams here last week, including Tuesday's junior pro-am.

"One of my kids beat me," he said. "I told my four players they would get $5 for birdies. This young man was really good. He took 30 bucks off me. He was 4 under and I was 3 under.''

This was better than Streck's 2007 experience with youth congregating in Blaine.

"We're staying with a family on the course this year," he said. "He's a pastor at a church here -- Tom Stuart. It's great. Quiet.

"Last year, I was at one of the hotels here. It was me and a bunch of soccer players. Some of them were playing soccer in the hall at 1 o'clock in the morning. It went on until I opened the door, grabbed the ball and put it in my room.

"Didn't hear a thing after that. When I left in the morning, I put the ball outside the door and it was gone when I got back.''

Patrick Reusse can be heard weekdays on AM-1500 KSTP at 6:45 and 7:45 a.m. and 4:40 p.m. • preusse@startribune.com