Need an expert at grilling? Jeff Sluman's your man

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Michael Heape/Special for Champions Tour

Jeff Sluman gives a few grilling tips to local reporter Virginia Johnson at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am.

LUTZ, Fla. -- You're Jeff Sluman. You're playing at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am. You've been grilling your entire life. So instead of heading to the locker room following some golf at TPC Tampa Bay, you naturally head straight to the food-prep tent adjacent to the Outback dining area, where you pull out a couple nice steaks from the refrigerator and fire up the grill to 550 degrees.

"The grill has to be hot. That's the key," Sluman said, without a bead of sweat in sight.

Sluman

Even with the help of the gas grill heating up the premises, Sluman pointed out that where he's standing "still isn't as hot as it was in Kuala Lumpur at the 1984 Malaysian Open. Or possibly Memphis. Pick any year. Now that was hot."

If anything, Sluman looks cool and relaxed in his apron, resembling nothing like the 1964 U.S. Open edition of Ken Venturi.

Sluman is a lot of things, an amateur sommelier ("A glass of red wine is always good with a steak," he said), an enthusiastic griller and, oh, yeah, a Champions Tour golfer. Following a practice session at TPC Tampa Bay, site of this week's Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am, Sluman proved he's more than just adequate behind the grill as he taped a segment for a local TV news show. This is the kind of thing that happens when a restaurant chain made famous by its steaks sponsors a golf tournament.

The station knew it had its choice of Champions Tour players if it were short-game or putting tips it wanted. But to tape a piece on grilling? Chef Jeff was the man.

"A little olive oil, some sea salt and some ground pepper," Sluman said of his preferred steak seasoning. "Then after it's cooked, let people put whatever they want on their steaks."

For Sluman, grilling is a two-or-three-time-a-week endeavor when he's not at a tournament and at his home outside Chicago. "Pork chops, hamburgers, chicken, steak," he said. "You name it." And Illinois' harsh winters don't deter him. "Oh, yeah. I've grilled in zero-degree weather more times than I can remember."

Then again, grilling was always a big thing in the Sluman home in Rochester, N.Y., when Sluman was growing up. He said he first started grilling -- on charcoal -- with his dad at about the same time he began playing golf. "A lot of hamburgers and hot dogs back then," he said. "The days we had steaks were a real treat."

Wednesday at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am must have been one of those days.

With numerous Outback employees watching, Sluman pulled the meat he had been grilling -- one medium rare and one medium-plus -- off the grill, Jeff Zullo, an Outback research and development chef, took a bite and smiled. "Very good," Zullo said. Without missing a beat, Sluman looked straight into the camera and said, "It's not just the play that's hot here at the Outback."

Get this man his SAG card. Now.

Until he joins the actor's union -- or enrolls in chef's school -- his Champions Tour card will have to do. Fortunately for Sluman, his Tour membership has provided pretty steady work since he turned 50 in 2007. His play has been especially good this season.

In five 2011 events, the three-time Champions Tour winner has tied for second twice (at the Allianz Championship and Mississippi Gulf Resort Classic) and picked up a tie for fourth at the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at Hualalai and a tie for eighth at the Toshiba Classic. He's third in the Charles Schwab Cup standings.

"When I turned 50, I committed to the Champions Tour and pretty much gave up on the other guys (PGA TOUR)," he said. "I'm playing well this year. In a lot of ways, I feel better today than I did when I was on the PGA TOUR. And in some ways, I feel worse."

To prove his point, he stretches his back a little and talks about the attendant aches and pains that come with getting older. "Those things didn't happen when I was 30," he said

He then stopped, took a moment and added, "But I play golf for a living. How bad can it be?"

Not bad at all, evidently, as he stands in the shadow of a championship golf course that is hosting a tournament that will pay the winner $255,000 from a purse of $1.7 million this week. As if he needed another reminder, Sluman then looks down and sees two 10-ounce sirloins, hot off the grill, seasoned to perfection.