Format of Sherwood Tournament Relaxes Golfers, Pleases Fans : Charity: The success of the first-time pro event on the new Nicklaus-designed course in Thousand Oaks leads to promises of a return next year.

There are three basic measuring sticks to determine whether a professional golf tournament was successful. Well, add a fourth if Gerald Ford played in it: Was anyone killed?

The normal determining factors, however, are quite simple:

Did the players enjoy it?

Did the fans enjoy it?

Did the organizers make money?

In the aftermath of last weekend’s $1 million Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities Invitational at the new Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks, the answer to all three is a resounding Yes.

And, fortunately, ex-President Ford wasn’t invited.

The event began Wednesday with two rounds of pro-am play that attracted 80 amateur golfers, despite a hefty entry fee of $20,000 each. One of the amateurs, who was paired with Tom Kite in one round, figured $20,000 entitled him to a bit more than a few rounds of golf. He spent the first 13 holes offering tips to Kite, one of the premier golfers in the world.

“He was actually stopping Kite almost during his backswing and telling him he might want to use another club, things like that,” said an observer who followed the pair. “The amazing thing was, Kite never said a word to him about it.”

On Friday, 20 of the game’s top players teed it up for three days of strange golf--one round of alternate-shot golf, one round of best-ball and a closing round with a scramble format. And the strange tournament ended up being Strange’s tournament.

Curtis Strange, paired with Mark O’Meara, shredded the Jack Nicklaus-built course for a three-day score of 26 under par. Strange and O’Meara split a winner’s share of $250,000.

The course got a mixed review from the golfers. All of them praised the layout and condition of the course, but many of them were chafing about the design of the greens, which feature huge undulations and concave areas, which the players refer to as “collection areas” for golf balls.

“The course itself is outstanding,” said Bruce Lietzke, who teamed with Mark Calcavecchia and finished in eighth place in the 10-team event. “The condition of the course is absolutely the best of any course I have ever played. Everything was manicured just perfectly.

“But I just don’t like those greens with the collection areas. They can reward a bad shot and penalize a good shot. We can handle them OK, but who is going to play this course? The members are. And I’ll tell you right now, the members are going to have a heckuva time with these greens. They will have real problems.”

Even Strange said that the greens hurt the course.

“I don’t like them,” he said. “Good shots can turn out bad and bad shots can turn out good. When you hit a good shot, knocking it five feet from the pin, but you miss the collection area by a foot and the ball rolls 20 feet the other way, well, that’s not fair golf. The members will have a tough time out here, believe me.”

But with the exception of the collection-area greens, which are a trademark of Nicklaus-built courses, the players raved about the course and the tournament. All said they would be eager for a return invitation.

“I received nothing but positive words from my professional friends,” said Greg Norman, organizer of the tournament. “We showed just how exciting this format can be. There was a lot of friendship and camaraderie out there this week, even though we were playing for a lot of money. When you can get the best players in the world together and then get to decide which of the two drives to play as we did in the scramble, that to me is just really exciting.”

Norman, who played with Nicklaus, capped his play by chipping in from the fringe on the 18th hole Sunday, bringing a roar from the crowd of about 5,000 spectators who paid $200 each to watch the five-day event. He was rewarded for his 60-foot chip by a leaping high-five salute by the normally stoic Nicklaus.

“That wasn’t the first time Jack had high-fived me,” Norman said. “He high-fived all of us a few years ago during a Skins Game, but he did that because he was winning all the money. But people don’t generally see that side of Jack. People put him on a pedestal and they don’t want to try to relate to him and see him as a human being. But a format like this allows all of us to loosen up a bit and show how much fun the game can be.

“It was a lot of fun for the spectators to watch.”

On that point, Norman could get no argument.

“Spectacular, just spectacular,” said Paul Ferraro of Ventura, who watched all three rounds of the tournament. “I’ve been to L. A. Opens and to the San Diego Open and the Bob Hope tournament in Palm Springs . . . I’ve been attending golf tournaments for about 12 years. But this was by far the best. Just to see this kind of field, with Nicklaus and Norman and Arnold Palmer and Trevino and the others . . . just spectacular.”

Other spectators said the real treat was that because of the crowd, which was limited to 5,000 people, they got a chance to literally rub shoulders with the golf legends.

“At other tournaments, like the Los Angeles Open, you can’t get near these guys,” said Annette Lindley of Westlake Village. “You’ve got 15,000 people pushing you. Here, it was like just us and a few friends. It was such a small group following players like Arnold and Jack. It was terrific.”

Norman said all of his doubts about whether he could make such a big-scale event go off without any glitches were laid to rest. He and Sherwood owner David Murdock announced late Sunday that the tournament would return to Sherwood next year.

“The guys were very happy with the format and the treatment they received by everyone here,” he said. “We will be back next year and I can foresee no major changes in the format. It made us jump around out there and laugh and smile, and that is good for golf.”

The event raised more than $1 million for several charities, including the Ronald McDonald House, an aid program for children with cancer.

Those who attended the event will long remember the sight of Nicklaus laughing and hand-slapping with Norman after the Australian sank the long chip shot at the 18th green.

But for a group of very sick children, the tournament will mean even more. More than they and their parents could ever say.

And by any measuring stick, that makes the tournament a roaring success.