Commentary : Less-Than-Improved Lie Used to Spurn Seniors Tournament

Golfers can sometimes appear to be a quirky lot. Note the clothes, which make them look like a Rose Parade float.

One would think, however, that even guys who wear paisley pants would jump at the chance to watch Arnold Palmer play golf on their home course, to see the legend putting on their greens, blasting out of their traps.

Not so, according to news reports earlier this month.

The GTE Seniors Golf Classic, held at Wood Ranch Golf Club for the past 2 years, had pulled out of the Simi Valley course because the golfers--including Palmer, Gary Player, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Billy Casper and many others--had grown a bit weary of having their eyebrows torn from their foreheads by the shrieking winds that often rake the course.

Sponsors sought another Valley-area course to showcase some of the greatest names in golf. They talked about making a 2-year deal with a country club and bringing Jack Nicklaus into the tournament in 1990, when he joins the senior tour.

They settled on 2 courses: North Ranch Country Club in Thousand Oaks and Lakeside Country Club in North Hollywood.

And both courses promptly told tournament organizers to take a hike.

The members, tournament officials were told, didn’t want it.

“Our members just didn’t want the pros tying up their golf course for a week,” North Ranch General Manager Tom Carroll said last week.

They didn’t want Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player tying up their golf course for a week? They didn’t want Arnold Palmer playing their course?

Is this a country club or the Western Schmo Convention?

Does it seem that if these folks were house painters they would have ordered Michelangelo to get that garbage off the ceiling?

“We looked like jerks,” said North Ranch member Rudy Commans, father of pro golfer Ron Commans. “I never felt like more of a jerk in my life.”

Commans and many other North Ranch members are in a frenzy because the directors of the club announced that the tournament was turned away because of a membership vote.

There was no vote.

There was no discussion with the members.

Yet an event that attracted upward of 50,000 spectators each of the past 2 years apparently will no longer be held in the Valley area. The tournament may end up at Sandpiper Country Club in Santa Barbara.

At each country club, one man or a handful of men made the decision to tell Palmer, Player, Rodriguez and perhaps Nicklaus that they were as welcome at North Ranch and Lakeside as a man pounding brass cymbals together on the green.

At North Ranch, more than 40 golfing members were asked this week if their opinions on hosting the senior event had been sought.

All said no.

All said they did not know any member of the club who was polled.

“We would have loved to have had the tournament,” Commans said. “Absolutely loved it. Arnold Palmer playing on our course? How can you ask for a bigger thrill? Everyone I know would have jumped at the chance.

“We didn’t want Arnold Palmer tying up our golf course for a week? Damn, that makes me mad.”

Even the opinion of Bill Finn, the club’s director of golf tournaments and social events, was not sought by the board of directors.

“Having the seniors play on our course would have been not just a pleasure, but an honor,” Finn said. “A great honor. These are the guys who made golf. And now, we just look like jerks.”

At Lakeside, dozens of members also said that they had not been asked by the club’s directors about hosting the seniors tournament. Six of those interviewed did not even know that their club had rejected the event.

Lakeside manager Ali Dargahi said that inquiries on the subject would have to be made in writing. He told a reporter an answer to any questions might take several weeks.

“I have no idea what happened,” he said. “You’ll have to write to the golf committee. There is no one here. I can’t help you. I am waiting for a phone call. Goodby.”

Which is roughly what Lakeside told Arnold Palmer.

At North Ranch, chairman of the board Bill Cleary was the culprit in the eyes of some members.

“If you took a poll, at least 80 percent of our members would be in favor of having the tournament,” North Ranch member Duane Carter said. “And that’s a conservative estimate. The other night we had dinner with about 30 people and every single one of them was strongly in favor of it.

“We’re all mad about this. Bill Cleary could have at least asked us. He never asked anyone.”

Cleary, who was preparing for a round of golf, spoke with a reporter on the condition that most of what he said was off the record. On the record, he said that the members weren’t asked their opinion because there wasn’t enough time. Tournament sponsors, he said, demanded an answer in 2 days.

“It was unfortunate,” Cleary said. “But the board of directors did what was best for everyone.”

Dick MacLean, who headed the Valley search for a new tournament site, reaffirmed that he was told North Ranch’s rejection was a members’ decision.

“I was told that NCAA championships were held there last year and that the members simply said they weren’t interested in having their course taken over for another week,” MacLean said.

Cleary, after a lengthy off-the-record response to a series of questions, said that he was aware of the reaction among the members.

“We’ve had some negative feedback,” he said. “Some members are dissatisfied, but just a few vocal dissidents.”

A moment later, Cleary stepped to the first tee and uncorked a drive. His swing was a bit unorthodox. The ball sailed a bit to the left and did not travel very far.

But Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus will never hit a better drive off the first tee at North Ranch.