Clown Prince Plays in the King’s Court : Golf: Matched with Palmer, Jacobsen keeps fans in stitches in Shark Shootout at Sherwood.

Like everyone else in the tournament field, Peter Jacobsen banged around a few golf balls on the practice range at Sherwood Country Club before teeing off in chilly conditions early Thursday.

He didn’t waste any time getting the rest of his game warmed up, either.

When one of Jacobsen’s amateur partners blasted a tee shot almost out of sight, Jacobsen didn’t miss the chance to chime in with one of his characteristic wisecracks. He rarely does.

“You out-drive me one more time and I’m walking back in,” Jacobsen said.

It was the first hole.

In a fan-friendly event like the Franklin Funds Shark Shootout, effervescent guys like Jacobsen are a definite boon.

Galleries at the 54-hole event, which runs today through Sunday, are restricted to 5,000 fans daily. Fans are so close to the action that they literally can reach out and touch the players.

Some stodgy pros might prefer that this was not the case. Jacobsen is clearly a guy in his own element.

Designers dubbed the posh course Sherwood because the “Robin Hood” movies used to be filmed in the area. Jacobsen qualifies as one of the merry men.

“I think it comes naturally for me,” said Jacobsen, a former network golf commentator. “I’m pretty talkative.”

Watching Jacobsen work a crowd--or in this case, mug for the members of his pro-am foursome--is something to behold. If a PGA Tour popularity contest was held, Jake would finish in the lead pack.

“He’s the best, as far as I’m concerned,” said Mike Cowan, Jacobsen’s caddie.

Evidently. Cowan has worked for Jacobsen the past 16 years.

“Peter likes people, can’t you tell?” Cowan said, Jacobsen’s cumbersome bag slung over his shoulder. “You don’t have to be anybody special for him to care about you.”

This isn’t always the norm. Many pros participate in pro-am events because it is required. Real sticks in the mud, some of them.

Jacobsen, on the other hand, practically adopts his playing partners as children. He takes time to learn their names--and has no choice but to learn their games. Some of those amateurs are dangerous.

In pro-ams, the pro and his amateur teammates post a combined score. While many pros are aloof, Jacobsen was reading putts, soliciting advice, giving playing tips and chewing on their collective ear.

Heck, if any amateurs in the field got their money’s worth--each donated $20,000 to charity for playing privileges--it was Jacobsen’s crew.

Playing partner Mike Karsner of Westlake Village, more often than not, was Jacobsen’s foil. At one point on the front nine, Jacobsen gave the amateur a spontaneous lesson after the latter hit a sweeping duck hook into the boondocks.

Turn the hips.

Finish the swing.

Hit through the ball.

As the pair strode down the fairway a heartbeat later, Jacobsen, well, changed his tack. Karsner almost doubled over with laughter.

Said Jacobsen: “Aw, to hell with it, just hit the . . . ball.’ ”

Quite the pistol, Pete. Jacobsen kept the banter alive with talk of basketball, the Rose Bowl hopes of his alma mater, Oregon, and just about every other conceivable topic.

“He’s a funny guy,” Karsner said.

This isn’t breaking news. Galleries warmed up to the affable 40-year-old a long time ago. On the tour, where performance and personality don’t always go hand in hand, Jacobsen is the whole package. He’s about as colorful as they come.

Evidence: Not everyone on the Tour has an alter ego. Jacobsen and some pals recorded an album five years ago under the name Jake Trout and the Flounders. Jacobsen and PGA mainstays Payne Stewart, Larry Rinker and Mark Lye were among the performers.

Jacobsen and Lye took a handful of old tunes, like “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” and Soul Man,” and reworked the lyrics and titles. Horrific as it sounds, a cassette with “Hittin’ on the Back of the Range” and “Golf Fan,” actually found an audience. Presumably the same folks who still buy plaid golf slacks.

The album, which also featured legendary blues musicians Steve Cropper and Duck Dunn, has sold almost 30,000 copies, Jacobsen said. The Flounders even performed live a few times, with Jacobsen hamming it up on guitar and vocals. “Huey Lewis is a big fan,” Jacobsen said.

Lewis and his band recently released an album of old rhythm-and-blues standards. Jacobsen is a pretty good mimic, too. In fact, he can flat duplicate the swing of dozens of PGA players.

Anybody with a recognizable swing quirk--Ray Floyd, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Arnold Palmer--has seen it replicated by Jacobsen. Fans love it and players don’t even seem to mind.

His imitation of Palmer’s teeth-chattering rip looks like a mirror image. It’s uncanny.

“I’ve done it right in front of him a hundred times and he’s never said a word,” Jacobsen said, grinning.

Palmer has been Jacobsen’s partner in the tournament portion of the Shark Shootout since the event’s inception in 1989. Partners Greg Norman and Nick Price, the top players on the globe, always draw a huge throng. Palmer and Pete aren’t far behind.

Jacobsen, not to mention the fans, could care less that the pair has finished last at the Shootout two years in a row. As far as Jake is concerned, “The King and I” is a play that will never close.

“People ask whether Arnie can play,” Jacobsen said. “Let me tell you, he can play. He drives the ball as well as anybody on either tour. Heck, I’m flattered that he wants to play with me.”

Actually, Jacobsen can play with just about anybody. He has rolled up $3,472,507 in career earnings to rank 36th on the all-time PGA list. Sure, there’s more money to be won on tour these days, but Jacobsen has carted off more green than some serious luminaries, such as Miller, Weiskopf, Palmer, Player, Casper and Barber.

On the course, though, he is more of an everyman. The approachable guy. Somebody people can talk to.

“I won’t bite their heads off,” Jacobsen said.

Laugh their heads off is more like it. During his round, Jacobsen signed autographs, posed for pictures, teased members of the gallery, yakked it up with course marshals. Just another entertaining day at the office.

What the heck, it doesn’t hurt to be nice, right?

“I think it’s important in all professional sports to represent yourself well, to try to be a strong role model,” he said. “Charles Barkley says he isn’t a role model, but he is.

“Maybe every once in a while, all athletes should have to walk through the fans like we do, not just have them (sitting way back) in the stands.”