The Long and Short of It Win : Golf: Couples’ drives set the table for Floyd as team scores five-shot victory over Palmer-Jacobsen at Sherwood Country Club.

A golf partner of Yogi Berra tells of the day the Hall of Famer played in a scramble format tournament and was told on one hole that despite hitting by far the longest drive, the tee shot of another member had to be used instead, to abide by a tournament rule.

“OK,” a dejected Berra yelled while standing beside his ball, far up the fairway. “But if I was playing by myself, I’d use this one.”

Ray Floyd and Fred Couples didn’t need Berra’s tee shots Sunday.

Floyd and Couples took a six-shot lead in alternate-shot play Saturday over the Sherwood Country Club Course and shot a 61 for a five-shot victory over Arnold Palmer and Peter Jacobsen Sunday in the $1-million Ronald McDonald Children’s Charities tournament.

Floyd and Couples got a birdie on the first hole and an eagle on the second en route to a victory that was worth $125,000 to each.

Their strategy was based on long drives by Couples and Floyd’s precision short game,

Example: Sunday, on the 341-yard first hole, Couples hit a drive that came to rest 10 yards in front of the green. Floyd then chipped to within a few feet and Couples sank the putt for an easy birdie.

The team finished the unique tournament with a score of 34-under-par 182. Palmer and Jacobsen closed with a 60 and earned $70,000 each. The teams of Ben Crenshaw-Lanny Wadkins, defending champions Curtis Strange-Mark O’Meara and Mark Calcavecchia-Ian Baker-Finch tied for third place at 26-under-par and earned $44,500 each.

Tournament host Greg Norman and partner Jack Nicklaus finished ninth in the 10-team field. Quipped Norman: “I guess I need a new partner. Someone a bit younger and stronger.”

None were stronger that Couples.

The 31-year-old who has won four PGA tournaments in his 10 years on the Tour, including the 1990 Los Angeles Open, spent three days hitting drives that made Floyd’s task easy. Sunday, on the ninth hole, he drove the ball nearly 350 yards down the middle of the fairway.

“When we started with a birdie and an eagle today, I knew it was over,” said Floyd, winner of the 1976 Masters, the 1986 U.S. Open and the PGA Championship in 1969 and 1982.

“When a man is hitting a ball off the tee like Fred did this week, his partner doesn’t have a very difficult job.”

Couples said that he might have picked up something during the three-day event that will be worth much more to him than the $125,000 check.

“I learned so much from playing with this man,” he said, nodding toward Floyd.

“His intensity on the course, the intensity in his eyes, was something to see. He’d make a joke or two, but as soon as he turned to walk to his ball, the smile disappeared and he’d get that look in his eyes. I sometimes relax on a golf course, and when I do, I can’t always focus on the game again.

“Raymond does not have that problem, and maybe from now on, after this experience, I won’t have it anymore, either.”

Couples indicated that maybe the change had already begun.

“We knew we had a big lead going in, and we didn’t want to rub anyone’s face in it,” he said, “but we really wanted to win this thing by 10 strokes. That’s what we decided before we teed off. I think we needed that to keep our intensity, to keep grinding away out there. We didn’t want to let anyone back into the tournament.”

The event, held for the first time last year, was Norman’s idea. The top career money winners and 1990 money winners were invited. In 1989 it raised more than $1 million for several charities, and Norman said he expected this year’s event to surpass that total.