GOLF: RMCC INVITATIONAL : O’Meara Becomes Happy Bystander

For $200 a ticket, golf fans had a chance Friday to watch some of the best players in the world shred the difficult Sherwood Country Club course in Thousand Oaks. One of those who watched was Mark O’Meara of Escondido. But his favorite player in the star-studded field was not Arnold Palmer. Nor was it Jack Nicklaus or Greg Norman.

O’Meara, who played golf at Cal State Long Beach more than a decade ago, was content to stand and admire the skills of 1988 and 1989 U.S. Open champion Curtis Strange. And if Strange continues to play the way he did Friday, on Sunday O’Meara will be handed a check for $125,000.

O’Meara, a six-time winner on the PGA Tour, is Strange’s playing partner in the unique $1-million Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities tournament.

Not that Strange seems to need much help.

Strange, No. 3 on the PGA’s all-time money list and the winner of 17 PGA tournaments, had 11 birdies on the 7,025-yard layout. O’Meara added two more birdies, and the team posted a 13-under-par 59 in the best-ball format--in which the better of the players’ two scores is recorded on each hole--for a two-stroke lead over the team of Palmer and Peter Jacobsen.

“I was Bill Shoemaker out there today,” O’Meara said. “I just hung on. Curtis birdied five of the first six holes, and I didn’t have to do much. It was just nice to see.”

And while Strange tried desperately to give much of the credit for the team’s showing to O’Meara, few bought it. Including O’Meara.

“I did make 11 birdies and I know it looks like I carried the team,” Strange said, “but . . . “

“But you did ,” O’Meara interrupted. “But remember, I still get half of the money. You’re not getting two-thirds or anything like that, OK?”

The winning team will earn $250,000.

Strange birdied Nos. 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, all on putts inside eight feet. After Strange sank a 12-foot birdie putt on the 10th hole, O’Meara made half of his donation, sinking a short birdie putt on No. 11, a 522-yard par-five hole.

Strange pitched his third shot from 150 feet on the par-five 13th hole within a foot of the cup and made his seventh birdie of the day, and after O’Meara birdied No. 14, Strange birdied the rest of the course.

He birdied No. 15 with a difficult 22-foot putt, dropped a seven-footer on the next hole and a 12-footer on the 7th. He then made a twisting 30-footer on No. 18 from a sidehill lie on the sprawling green.

Strange struggled during the 1990 season, failing to win a tournament and falling to 53rd on the earnings list as he putted poorly in nearly every event. The struggles, it seems, are over.

“Maybe Curtis’ putting was off this year,” rival Lanny Wadkins said, “but he made a year’s supply of putts today. He made them all, the makeable putts and the unmakeable putts.”

Palmer and Jacobsen posted an 11-under-par 61, only to watch Strange single-handedly shove them into second place with the string of four closing birdies.

Palmer stirred the crowd, even though at $200 for admission there was no hard-core Arnie’s Army but rather a kind of Arnie’s Polo Club.

He blasted his ball out of a trap 35 yards from the green and into the cup for an eagle on the par-five fifth hole, then knocked in consecutive 25-foot birdie putts on Nos. 14 and 15. Palmer had three other birdies during the round.

Palmer said the format of the tournament, in which the 10 two-man teams play a round of best-ball, a round of alternate shot (the players alternate shots after they both hit tee shots) and a final round of scramble golf (players select the best drive and both get to hit their second shots from that spot) does not ease the pressure.

“When I tee it up,” Palmer said, “I don’t want to fool around. No matter what the event.”