GOLF : Snead Best, According to PGA

Who is the greatest golfer who ever lived?

It is a question that cannot be answered, but it is one that can be argued for hours at a time.

If the criterion is the number of major championships won, the answer is Jack Nicklaus. He has 20, and no one else is close.

If the criterion is the amount of money won, it’s Tom Kite, who has won $5,600,691, thanks in part to the $625,000 windfall he reaped by winning one tournament, the Nabisco Championships, a week ago.

If the criterion is number of tournaments won, the greatest is Sam Snead, the slammer from West Virginia who won 84 officially and many others that aren’t listed as official.

Commissioner Deane Beman and the PGA Tour staff have come up with a new criterion, based on statistics from tournaments between 1916 and the present, to measure a player’s career in different eras. The money list, once the measure of success, became obsolete with the escalation of prize money.

For instance, Snead, in winning 84 tournaments, won $620,000 in a career that spanned 50 years. Kite won $5,000 more than that in one tournament.

The PGA method gives equal importance to every tournament. Points are awarded to the first 25 finishers in accordance with the tour purse breakdown, which pays 18% of the purse to first place and so on. Every event is awarded 10,000 points, thus giving 1,800 to the winner.

And the winner?

Sam Snead.

Snead totaled 311,205 points, far outdistancing Nicklaus, 260,777; Arnold Palmer, 228,823; Ben Hogan, 219,226; Billy Casper, 211,281; Byron Nelson, 190,081; Lloyd Mangrum, 178,968; Gene Littler, 169,471; Cary Middlecoff, 160,237, and Horton Smith, 158,462, who round out the top 10.

Kite is 40th with 99,181.

Of course, it gives no consideration to amateurs, thus eliminating Bobby Jones, or to foreign tournaments, where Gary Player, Bobby Locke and Seve Ballesteros have prospered. But it does make Snead happy.

“That was a real nice thing of them to do,” Snead said during a stop while promoting his new book, “The Lessons I’ve Learned.”

“You know, I’d have more points than that if they’d give me those other tournaments I won. I won the first Crosby tournament down in Rancho Santa Fe, and they don’t count it.”

Snead, 78, has dropped off the Senior PGA Tour to spend his time playing in corporate outings and charity events, and autographing books.

“This book deal is tougher than playing 36 holes of golf,” he said. “Back in Dallas the other day, I signed 400 books. I couldn’t believe my eyes. People were coming in loaded down with eight or 10 books. They’d have me sign one for them, one for cousin Joe, one for uncle Dick and you can’t imagine who else.

“Some of those charity tournaments are no picnic, either. Usually, I stay at one hole, a par-three, and hit a ball with each group and then go putt out with them. I played one hole 33 times at Ft. Pierce, (Fla.,) and I had one stretch where the team made 10 birdies in a row playing my ball.”

Snead has some definite ideas about what’s wrong with golf:

--The new golf courses, especially those designed by professional golfers, are too difficult, he says.

“They don’t relate to the everyday golfer. They make the courses too tough, especially the second shots. Muirfield, one of Jack’s (Nicklaus) courses, is the hardest second-shot course I’ve ever seen. You have to be a magician to work your way around there.

“They ought to look at the old courses like Riviera and Cypress Point. (Touring pros) don’t kick the hell out of Riviera, even after they took out that barranca that ruined a lot of scores. And when they build those tough holes, they ought to look at No. 16 at Cypress. If you want to go for it over the ocean, you’ve got a hell of a shot. But there’s also a nice, little place to lay up. You take some of these new ones, like that PGA West, they don’t have a place for the short knocker to hit his shot.

“There’s too many grunt-and-groan courses being built. Golf is still a game, and it should be a pleasure to play.”

--Nobody walks anymore.

“The average guy would be a hell of a lot better off if he walked, but the clubs don’t like that. There’s big money to be made with the carts, so most them shoo away the caddies. There aren’t many real caddies around anymore, which is too bad because one of the best things about golf is the walking.”

--Big money events, like the Nabisco, give a false view of the money list.

“A guy could win five tournaments and another win just one, and if that one is the Nabisco, it upsets the whole apple cart. And only 30 guys play (the Nabisco), so it’s not fair to all the other guys who don’t get a shot at the big money.

“I won 11 tournaments one year and made $35,000. I won the British Open once and got $600. I guess I came along too soon.”

Golf Notes

Twenty of golf’s finest shotmakers will play in an old-fashioned country club-type tournament, the Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities Invitational, Nov. 15-19 at the new Sherwood CC in Thousand Oaks. Greg Norman is the host of the PGA team event, which will include two days of pro-am play, followed by a round of alternate shot, a round of scrambles and a final round of best ball for a purse of $1 million.

Norman will be paired with Jack Nicklaus, the architect of the 7,007-yard wooded course near Lake Sherwood. Other teams: Curtis Strange-Mark O’Meara, Mark Calcavecchia-Bruce Lietzke, Tom Kite-Hal Sutton, Arnold Palmer-Peter Jacobson, Lee Trevino-Andy Bean, Tom Weiskopf-Lanny Wadkins, Hale Irwin-Steve Jones, Ray Floyd-Chip Beck and Bernhard Langer-John Mahaffey. The winning team will collect $250,000.

After the Sherwood tournament, Norman will conduct a clinic and play a nine-hole exhibition Nov. 20 at Newport Beach CC to raise money for the Assessment and Treatment Service Center for abused juveniles. . . . Also on Nov. 20, the City of Hope-Eric Tracy Open will be played at Braemar CC with LPGA pros Carolyn Hill and Donna Caponi participating.

Three Southern California professionals have been honored by the PGA. Tom Addis of Singing Hills received the national organization’s highest award, professional of the year. Tom Sargent of Yorba Linda CC received the junior golf leader-of-the-year award, and Tim Skogen of the Marriott Springs Resort in Palm Desert was named the PGA’s resort merchandiser of the year.

Inaugural inductees into the Southern California PGA junior hall of fame included players Amy Alcott, Billy Casper, Gene Littler and Craig Stadler and administrators Bill Bryant, Ralph Waldo Miller and Mrs. A. S. (Lou) Smith. An induction ceremony will be held Saturday night at Yorba Linda CC. . . . Golden State Tour amateurs will be at Lomas Santa Fe CC in Solana Beach Monday and Los Verdes GC in Palos Verdes Friday.

The Dodgers’ Rick Dempsey will be the host of a celebrity tournament Monday at El Caballero CC featuring Tom Lasorda, Don Drysdale, Steve Garvey, Ernie Banks, Orel Hershiser and Sandy Koufax. . . . Also Monday is the SoCal PGA professional-lady club champion tournament at Candlewood CC in Whittier. Defending champions are Ed Oldfield and Mary Callaghan of Los Angeles CC. . . . Aspiring tour players will sweat out regional qualifying Tuesday through Friday at Rio Bravo Resort in Bakersfield.

Joe Caraway will hold his 15th annual Retired Military Seniors Open Thursday and Friday at the Sunrise Vista GC on Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. . . . Industry Hills will hold a fund-raiser tournament Nov. 14 for the Bill Bryant Memorial Junior Golf Scholarship Foundation. . . . The 23rd Palm Springs senior men’s championship will be played Thursday and Friday at the city’s municipal course. Starting times remain available, according to pro Mike Carroll.

O’Neal Hadnott, 59, the Riviera golfer who won the L.A. City Senior championship, is a retired general surgeon from Marina del Rey. Before joining the seniors, Hadnott won club championships at Rancho Park in 1976 and Riviera in 1977. Honored as the “most senior golfer” in the tournament was 92-year-old Jack McEdwards of West L.A.