ShareThisBy GREG HARDWIG
Peter Jacobsen will be spending most of the next few months at home, starting Saturday. That's when the Champions Tour golfer and Bonita Springs resident will undergo hip replacement surgery.
Dr. Mort Bertram of Naples, Fla. will be performing the surgery.
"He's one of the best in the country," Jacobsen said in a statement. "I had a very disappointing X-ray last Friday. Dr. Bertram was surprised at how much my left hip joint had deteriorated since the U.S. Senior Open (in July). I'd had another X-ray done just before the Senior Open."
Jacobsen played through pain at the Senior British Open, then withdrew in Seattle, and from his own JELD-WEN Tradition near his hometown of Portland, and last week's Wal-Mart First Tee Open.
"I've got bone spurs and lots of problems in my left hip _ bone on bone," he said. "The doctor said it's time to come out."
Jacobsen hopes to return sometime in November, pointing to the ADT Skills Challenge, which will be taped on Nov. 13, the Monday after the Merrill Lynch Shootout in Naples. He said Bertram told him he could be "swinging a club in four to five weeks."
"The ADT Skills Challenge is one I'm shooting for in November," said Jacobsen. "I'm the defending champion. I want to play in that."
Jacobsen has also played in every Merrill Lynch Shootout. His production company used to manage the event. This is the 18th year for the unofficial tournament, which features 24 tour professionals in two-man teams.
"On behalf of Greg (Norman) and everyone involved in the Merrill Lynch Shootout, we wish Peter a speedy recovery," tournament director Taylor Ives said. "He's a great ambassador for the game of golf. We hope to see him back out there soon."
It remains to be seen if that will be in time for the Shootout. Sixteen of the 24 players in the field have been announced, with the final eight expected to be named by the end of the month. Norman, the tournament founder and host, had said on Friday that Jacobsen was on a lengthy list of candidates for those eight spots.
Despite the hip and a troublesome knee, Jacobsen is 12th in the Charles Schwab Cup points race and 17th on the Champions Tour money list.
"The procedure is similar to what Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Bench and Doug Collins had done," Jacobsen said. "Most hip replacements are fairly similar. It's just a matter of which joint you're having put in. I'm getting a Stryker hip, the newest and latest development.
"The doctor told me I should be walking the day of my surgery, so I'll be in the hospital over the weekend. (I'll) probably be ... on some medicine, but I'll be watching the Ohio State-Texas game and my Oregon Ducks play Fresno State. I sure hope the hospital gets ESPN and ESPN2."
This is the third straight year Jacobsen has underwent surgery, and the fourth time in that span. Jacobsen also had arthroscopic hip surgery in 2000.
"I'm also looking forward to a year without a scalpel," he said. "I like to use 14 clubs and I don't want one of them to be a scalpel."
