To Some Pros, This Cup Runneth Over : Golf: Huge purse for season-ending tournament has big effect on final money-winning standings.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. —  How much is too much? Some prominent golf pros say the size of the purse for this week’s season-ending Nabisco Championships distorts the final money-winning standings on the PGA Tour.

Moreover, they say that too much emphasis is placed on one tournament, negating to an extent what they’ve accomplished in previous months.

Wait a minute. Are the pros averse to making money? Hardly. However, the total purse of $2.5 million, with its winner’s share of $450,000, for the tournament at Harbour Town Golf Links is almost twice as much as any other on the tour.

It’s a select field that will play in the event that begins today--only the top 30 players on the money-winning list.

Curtis Strange became the tour’s leading money-winner and the first player to earn more than $1 million in a season by defeating Tom Kite in a playoff in last year’s championships at Pebble Beach.

He was seventh on the money list before the 1988 tournament. By winning, he not only became golf’s first millionaire for one season, but was also named player of the year.

So one would think that Strange, currently the No. 8 money-winner, would favor the format.

Not so.

“Too much can change in one tournament at the end of the year,” Strange said. “To play for this amount of money is fantastic. But the money title used to go to the guy who has played consistently well over the course of the year. That’s not the case now.

“Whoever is in the top seven, eight, or nine who wins here will probably win the money title, and I don’t think that’s right.

“It happened to me last year and I’m still not saying that’s right. I don’t mean to be critical, but we go through 10 months of playing a lot of hard golf, and one tournament decides it all.”

Payne Stewart, the leading money-winner on the tour this year with $825,301, agrees with Strange.

“I don’t feel so much emphasis should be placed on one tournament,” he said. “We play all year to get to the state where we are right now. To win $625,000 in one week is a hell of a year.”

In addition to the purse for the tournament, the sponsor rewards players for season-long consistency with a $1-million total bonus, including a first-place prize of $175,000 to the player who is the leading money-winner at the end of the season. Thus the $625,000 figure mentioned by Stewart.

“Someone can be so-so all year long and then win (this event),” Stewart said. “It doesn’t necessarily show who is the best player of the year.”

“I think to have a big, big event at the end of the year is good,” Strange said. “But to have something too far beyond the second-biggest purse is too much of a gap.”

Kite, the second-leading money-winner this year with earnings of $770,278, is comfortable with the format. Asked if he thought too much emphasis is placed on this tournament, Kite said: “There’s no question it’s a big tournament and the prize money is so much greater than the other tournaments. There is a lot of importance placed on this tournament.

“Whether it’s too much or not depends on opinions. We have been trying to have a year-end tournament that carries some weight and has some impact. It wasn’t until (this event) came around that we were able to determine that.”

Earnings are escalating every year on the tour. It’s possible that there will be two or three million-dollar winners in 1989.

Paul Azinger and Greg Norman are third and fourth on the money list, having already earned $737,399 and $723,930.

Ted Schulz, the 30th and last qualifier for this week’s play, has earned $329,855. The 50th player on the money list, Jim Gallagher Jr., has earned $265,809. And so it goes.

Norman, like Strange and Stewart, believes the payoff here is excessive.

“I think if you’re going to make this tournament the way it is, you shouldn’t have it on the money list,” Norman said. “Make it a special event that everyone wants to get in by their consistent performance throughout the year. You’re talking about a $625,000 first-prize check for a percentage of the guys who are here. That’s only $100,000 short of what I’ve won for the year. It doesn’t balance out.”

Will dollar signs be dancing before the players’ eyes when they tee off today? You bet.

Said Strange: “I said the other day, half jokingly, that I’m going to rearrange my priorities this week. I’m in here for the cold, hard cash. How can you not think about it? But I’m going to do what I always do, play as well as I can and forget about the money until I finish 72 holes. But sometimes it’s hard to do that.”

Golf Notes

Curtis Strange ranks the par-71, 6,657-yard Harbour Town Golf Links, a public course, among the top five courses in the world--even though he hasn’t played well here. He missed the cut at the Heritage tournament last April, and his best finish in 10 appearances here is a tie for seventh place. “It tests all parts of your game,” Strange said. “You have to have a well-rounded game to win here.”

Greg Norman, the low pro with a 65 in Wednesday’s pro-am, was also effusive in his praise of the course, saying, “I put it in the top five. If you play well, you’re rewarded. If you play poorly, you suffer. There isn’t any run on the soft fairways. It’s a driver’s course.” . . . It has also been called a second-shot course because of the small greens that have been enlarged for the tournament but are still small in comparison to other greens on the tour. The course is lined with pine and live oak trees, with marshes forming a natural border on some holes. Even though it’s a relatively short course by tour standards, it places a premium on shot making.

Strange and Norman have boats docked near the 18th green at Harbour Town. Strange has a sportfishing boat aptly named, “Perfect Shot.” Appropriately, Norman’s boat is named, “Aussie Rules.”

When Payne Stewart left California in February, he said he and his wife were singing the blues. He had earned only $6,000 and had to withdraw from the Nissan Los Angeles Open and AT&T; Pebble Beach National Pro-Am because of recurring back problems. He has since been on an exercise program and has lost 15 pounds, to 175. Nonetheless, his back is bothering him again and he said he has to go to the fitness trailer just to be able to play 18 holes. . . . Stewart, 32, won the Heritage tournament here earlier in the year with four rounds in the 60s and a record-breaking, 16-under-par 268. Then, Stewart, formerly a perennial runner-up on the tour, went on to win the PGA Championship at Kemper Lakes in Illinois last August. He said he has accomplished two of his career goals, winning a major tournament and being selected to the Ryder Cup team.

PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman said any tour player who wins the British Open will be given a 10-year exemption for tour events starting next year. He also said the proposal that foreign players be required to play in 12 tour events to retain playing privileges has reverted to 15. . . . The PGA player of the year is determined on a point basis with emphasis on winning a major title along with position on the money list and scoring average.