GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : Plenty at Stake in PGA Tour Finale

In 1968, Arnold Palmer became the first player on the PGA Tour to earn $1 million in official events--and it took him 13 years to do it.

Now, millionaires are as common as par for today’s players.

For example, Nick Price, Paul Azinger and Greg Norman have already earned more than $1 million this year and could substantially increase their earnings in the season-ending tour event, the Tour Championship, which begins Thursday at San Francisco’s Olympic Club.

It’s a $3-million tournament, with a winner’s share of $540,000 for a field comprising the year’s top 30 money winners.

In addition to the lucrative purse, postseason honors are a stake:

--The Arnold Plamer award, given annually to the tour’s leading money winner.

--The PGA Tour Player of the Year award, voted by the players.

--The Vardon Trophy, awarded for the season’s low stroke average.

Azinger is the defending champion and he said the victory boosted his confidence.

It was his only victory of 1992 and kept his streak alive of winning at least one tournament for six consecutive years, longest on the tour.

That streak was extended this year as Azinger has won three events, including the PGA Championship last August for his first major victory in a career that began in 1981.

“I don’t think anybody realizes what the Tour Championship did for me last year,” Azinger said. “There is nothing better than winning the last tournament of the year. It is pretty satisfying.”

Azinger also was a member of the winning U.S. Ryder Cup team over the Europeans last September at The Belfry in Sutton Coldfield, England.

“I think the Ryder Cup is probably the biggest event in golf today,” Azinger said. “I guess bigger than the four majors.

“There is not another event in golf where for three days everyone watching is hanging on to every single shot. If anyone is looking for a fifth major they don’t need to look any further.”

Azinger has won two of three singles matches in Ryder Cup competition since 1989. He earned a tie with England’s Nick Faldo last month. Faldo is regarded as the world’s best player.

“I guess a lot of people felt that tying Faldo was as good as a win,” Azinger said. “I was two down after 10 (holes) and he made a hole in one and I still didn’t lose.”

The PGA Championship was a match play event until 1958 and, with the popularity of match play in the Ryder Cup, Azinger, as PGA champion, was asked if that format should be revised again?

“I don’t know how good an idea it would be,” he said. “However, I’ve said for about the last four years now that I would love to see the Tour Championship become match play.

“I think you should take the top 32 players and go for two brackets. I mean what could be better than a 36-hole final with the possibility of two guys shooting it out for the money title.

“I think it’s a great opportunity for match play. I brought that up a long time ago and I don’t even think it was considered.

“But if we ever had an event on tour that could become just a straight match play event it would be this one (Tour Championship).”

Asked to assess his competition in the Tour Championship, Azinger said:

“I think Greg Norman has an advantage everywhere he goes because he hits it so solid and so far. Nick Price has hit the ball probably as long as he ever has in his career this year.

“I know I’ve probably driven as good this year as I have in my career. But I think Norman has an edge and I look at him as probably the pretournament favorite.

“However, there are so many good players who are going to be at the Olympic Club that you can’t overlook anyone.”

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The United States Golf Assn. has extended a special invitation to Arnold Palmer to participate in the 1994 U.S. Open at Oakmont Country Club in Oakmont, Pa.

It will be the first time since 1983 that Palmer has played in the U.S. Open. Palmer won the Open in 1960 and has finished second four other times, including losing in a playoff to Jack Nicklaus at Oakmont in 1962.

Golf Notes

Greenskeepers have done an excellent job in grooming Rancho Park Golf Course for the Ralphs Classic, but left some irate golfers in their wake. Until the last couple of years more rounds were played at Rancho than any U.S. course. But because course administrators have gone to great lengths to please the Senior PGA, many regulars have left in disgust. They claim that on at least four holes they use temporary or alternate greens the year round. Three weeks before the Ralps, all 18 were either temporary or alternates. Of the so-called alternates, only 16 and 17 are real greens. “It has reached the point where you can walk the course, but not play it,” said Spence Beard, a regular patron for 10 years who has departed.

Another golfer, Dick Shaw of Castaic is upset by the recent fee increase by Los Angeles County. “I can only play on weekends,” he wrote. “In June, 1992, I was paying $13.50 a round. Now it’s $21. They’ve also raised cart prices, which means I can’t afford to play every weekend.”

Ralph Kiner, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, will be honored by the Soboba Springs Country Club of San Jacinto with a golf tournament Friday. . . . PGA tour player Steve Pate will conduct a clinic at San Gabriel Country Club on Monday before the annual charity event, the Five Acres Classic. . . . The Tournament of Champions, which opens the pro golf season the first weekend at La Costa in Carlsbad, will be sponsored by Mercedes-Benz. Only tournament winners play in the event Jan. 6-9 that will have a purse of $1 million for the regular tour and $500,000 for seniors.