Golf : A Pete Dye Course Will Test Players in PGA Championship

The PGA Championship, the last and least of the four major tournaments in men’s pro golf, has at least three factors going for it--Sandy Lyle, Curtis Strange and Seve Ballesteros. The winners of the three majors played so far this year are entered in the PGA, which will be played Aug. 11-14 at Oak Tree Golf Club in Edmond, Okla.

Masters champion Lyle, U.S. Open champion Strange and British Open champion Ballesteros are quite a threesome for any tournament, especially the PGA, which has been suffering recently in comparison to the other majors.

Last summer, the PGA was played in hot and humid weather at Florida’s Palm Beach Gardens. The course was widely criticized because of the poor condition of the greens. Then, Larry Nelson won it. Even though Nelson was a former PGA champion, he wasn’t a particular popular winner.

This year, the PGA is setting itself up for some more barbs. Not only is the tournament being played in drought-stricken Oklahoma in the middle of the summer, the Oak Tree course is one of Pete Dye’s designs.

Dye, you may recall, is the golf course architect responsible for what the pros would probably agree to be the two most-hated courses in America--PGA West at La Quinta and the TPC Stadium Course at Sawgrass, Fla.

Famous for island holes, railroad ties and greenside bunkers so deep you need an elevator to get back, Dye’s courses have drawn criticism from players because they don’t usually allow more than one approach to the green.

The players call such courses “tricked up.” Of course, the players prefer simply to aim for the flag and hit the ball a ton off the tee.

Oak Tree, which opened in 1976, is ranked No. 15 on Golf Digest’s list of the “100 Greatest Courses in America.” Dye used three areas of water on the course and designed it so they would come into play at 10 of the holes. He also laid out large wastes of sand and devised rather small greens, some of them multi-level, to put a lot of pressure on second shots.

But if the weather and the golf course conspire to harm the PGA, perhaps an unusually top-heavy field of this year’s majors winners can save it.

Oak Tree may be the toughest golf course in the country. The USGA gave it a rating of 76.9. The PGA West Stadium course is rated at 77.1, but has a par of 72. Par at Oak Tree is 71.

The 7,015-yard Oak Tree course is loaded with difficult holes, but here are some of the roughest:

--No. 1--The Oaks, 441 yards, par 4. The hole may require the most accurate tee shot of the day. The fairway is a narrow lane and the drive must land in the right center, where it slopes from right to left. The three-tiered green is set on a diagonal to the fairway, which makes for a shallow approach.

--No. 3--Coe’s Corner, 584 yards, par 5. The green can’t be reached in two. The second shot, usually a 2-iron, is for position because there is water all along the left side. The third shot is a wedge to the green.

--No. 11--Windmill, 466 yards, par 4. After a straight, long drive, a second shot must hit a flat, elevated green or else . There is a bunker at the left of the green that is so deep, well, it’s really deep and the golfers had better avoid it.

--No. 13--Postage Stamp, 149 yards, par 3. The green on the edge of a creek is 45 yards deep, so it can be reached by either a 7-iron or a wedge. If it’s a wedge, though, it must be a straight shot because the green is very narrow in front.

--No. 17--Eternity, 200 yards, par 3. It’s all over water to a tiered green.

What’s new in golf clothing? A line of men’s golfing apparel, due out in November, is called the Bobby Jones collection. It’s named after the golf legend who died 18 years ago.

The Jones collection is being launched by Hickey-Freeman Co., a subsidiary of Hartmarx Corp., which paid the Jones estate for the use of Jones’ name and his likeness that will appear on every item of clothes in the collection. But the Jones clothes don’t come cheaply.

A pair of Bobby Jones slacks will cost $110-200, Bobby Jones blazers will cost $500-600, Bobby Jones cotton knit shirts will cost $65 and Bobby Jones cashmere sweaters will cost about $1,000.

Seve Ballesteros’ victory in the British Open was clearly one for the books. Not only did he shoot a final round of 65 to win at Royal Lytham & St. Anne’s, but now Ballesteros is revealing how he made some of those shots.

In a remarkable sense of good timing, “Natural Golf,” a book written by Ballesteros with collaborator John Andrisani, will be published in November to take advantage of his major victory. Atheneum, the publisher, claims Ballesteros “will reveal his self-learned theories and techniques.”

Golf Notes

The second Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce golf tournament will be played Aug. 19 at Los Verdes Country Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The tournament benefits the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce and selected charities. . . . The 14th Billy Casper Tournament, which will be played Aug. 30 at Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park, has an added feature this year. Twenty golfers will pay $25 apiece to play against Casper in a five-hole exhibition.

The Western States Golf Assn.’s junior tournament will be played Aug. 10-12 at Chester Washington golf course and two par-3 courses--Alondra Park and Jesse Owens. The tournament gives inner-city minority youngsters an introduction to golf. For information, call Marge Carpenter at (213) 935-1707. . . . A field of 250 is expected for the Wood Ranch Golf Club Junior Invitational Aug. 29-30. Among the golfers already signed to play is Stephanie Martin, daughter of Saticoy Country Club pro Lee Martin. Stephanie is a 2-handicapper who played No. 1 on the Rio Mesa High School boys’ team this year.

The PGA Tour will be getting an earlier start next year. The MONY Tournament of Champions, the first tournament on the schedule once again, will begin the 1989 season on Jan. 5, nine days earlier than in 1988. . . . The Century Club of San Diego has announced that $200,000 will be distributed to 23 charities. The money was raised at the Shearson Lehman Hutton Andy Williams Open, which Steve Pate won in February.