GOLF / THOMAS BONK : Only Price’s Game Is Not on the Money

Last year, Nick Price won the British Open, the PGA, four other tournaments and more than $2 million.

This year, Price hasn’t won a tournament, finished no higher than 13th in a major and probably is going to bank about a third of what he did last year.

A washout, right? Well, not exactly. Since Atrigon Golf, a club-making company in Camarillo, stunned the golf world by signing Price to an endorsement deal for close to $25 million, the bottom line may be that the bottom line is looking pretty good after all.

“It’s amazing that this year, everyone says I’ve had such a bad year,” Price said. “Well, I’ve won about $750,000 worldwide, so I hope all my bad years are like this one.”

Price is playing the Toyota World Match Play Championship in Surrey, England, next week and the Dunhill Cup at St. Andrews the following week. He may be eligible to play in the Tour Championship, Oct. 26-29, at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla., where the top 30 money winners are invited. Price is No. 26 at $563,720, but he isn’t playing a PGA Tour event in the interim.

Chances are that if Price does play Southern Hills, he will have a long-awaited, unibody driver in his bag. Price has been testing the driver for weeks. It’s notable for a gas-injected molding system that allows one-piece construction.

Next are two three-woods, oversized five- and seven-woods, then a set of irons, expected out in the spring.

By then, if not sooner, Price expects his game to be straightened out, just like his drives.

“My putting is already starting to come back,” Price said. “I am at the edge. I can turn my whole year around with a good strong finish. I’m now ready to play well again . . . and win tournaments.”

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Add Price: Acknowledged as the best player in the game the last two years, Price said he knows who his successor should be in 1995.

“Greg Norman,” Price said. “I mean, he’s played 15 tournaments and won $1.6 million? I don’t know anyone who’s been that efficient. Greg seems to stay in contention in every tournament. He just seems to always be there.

“Lee Janzen has won three times and has played as well as he’s ever played. Colin Montgomerie has played exceptionally well. I’d like to see him play against Greg and Lee Janzen.”

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A course is a course: Proving imitation is the most sincere form of, uh, litigation, three famous golf clubs have filed a federal lawsuit seeking legal protection for their designs.

Pinehurst, Pebble Beach and Harbor Town say Tour 18, a Houston company that builds golf courses duplicating well-known holes, is infringing on trademarks.

The first Tour 18 course is in Houston and features cloned segments such as the third hole at Pinehurst No. 2, the eighth hole at Shinnecock Hills and the three-hole “Amen Corner” from Augusta National, complete with dogwoods and azaleas.

Tour 18 has countersued. Houston attorney Bill Durkee told the Associated Press that there is nothing illegal about copying holes.

“There is no likelihood of confusion,” Durkee said. “A golfer will know he is in Houston and not Pinehurst.”

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Matchless: Lee Janzen and Payne Stewart weren’t in the Ryder Cup, which means they probably haven’t played any match play recently. That might come in handy at the Diners Club Matches, in which Janzen and Stewart team up to join twosomes from the PGA Tour, the Senior PGA Tour and the LPGA.

The event will be played Dec. 7-10 at the Nicklaus Course at PGA West.

Other teams are Jim Gallagher Jr. and Steve Lowery, Jay Haas and Curtis Strange, Billy Mayfair and Mark Calcavecchia, Raymond Floyd and Dave Eichelberger, Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Jim Albus, Nanci Bowen and Annika Sorenstam, Laura Davies and Karen Lunn and Dottie Mochrie and Juli Inkster.

Golf Notes

The sixth Criminal Courts Bar Assn. golf tournament will be played Monday at Braemar. Details: (818) 881-8112. . . . James Worthy is the celebrity chairman of the Oneil Hadnott Celebrity golf classic Wednesday at Riviera. The event benefits the Oneil Hadnott Minority Financial Aid Program at Crossroads School for Arts & Sciences. Details: (310) 459-7284. . . . Volunteers are needed for the Nissan Open, to be played Feb. 22-25 at Riviera. An orientation session for prospective volunteers will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday at the Nissan building, 18501 Figueroa St., in Carson. Details: (800) 752-OPEN.

Tuesday at Industry Hills, as many as 130 California teen-agers will try for spots on the 20-member team that will represent the United States against a team from France, Dec. 28-29 at Industry Hills and in July in Paris in the Guess? Golf International Junior Cup. Details: (213) 460-4336. . . . The first Roger C. Beach golf tournament will be played Oct. 30 at El Caballero. The event benefits the 4-H after-school program for inner-city youth. Details: (714) 222-5422. . . . Raymond Floyd’s Lexus Challenge, to be played Dec. 13-16 at the Citrus course in La Quinta, will benefit CHILD HELP USA, a program for the prevention of child abuse and neglect. Floyd, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez, Sean Connery, Bill Murray, Clint Eastwood and Joe Montana are expected to play.

The Toshiba Senior Classic has boosted its prize money $200,000 to $1 million. The event will be played March 15-17 at Newport Beach Country Club. . . . Gloria Ehret won the second stop on the six-event Volvo Legends Series at Chateau Elan in Braselton, Ga. Shelley Hamlin and Judy Dickinson tied for second.

John Michael Montgomery is the host of the 13th Academy of Country Music Bill Boyd Golf Classic, to be played Oct. 16 at De Bell Golf Course in Burbank. Toby Keith, Tracy Lawrence, Johnny Lee, Gary Morris, Buck Owens, Doug Stone, Aaron Tippin and Rick Trevino are expected to play. The event benefits the T.J. Martell Foundation for cancer, AIDS and leukemia research for children; AmFAR, the American Foundation for AIDS Research, and the Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children.