She Became a Company Woman by Getting the Goods on Golfers

Steve Stricker’s tee shot into the left bunker on No. 17 on Sunday at Sahalee Country Club in Redmond, Wash., might have cost him a PGA Championship.

But it cost Debbie Hall a Grand Slam.

Mark O’Meara got her halfway there, and Lee Janzen won the U.S. Open, but Vijay Singh prevented a sweep by Taylor Made, the company that pays Hall to pay golfers thousands of dollars to play its clubs.

Her mission is recruiting and signing players to endorsement contracts, the idea being that if they are successful, you’ll want to buy the clubs they use because you figure they will help you make some money in your Saturday morning Nassau.

She has done it for five years now, beginning with renewing a deal with O’Meara, who at the time was the scourge of the West Coast swing of the PGA Tour but didn’t have much going for him anywhere else.

“He wasn’t playing all that great at the time, and we were deciding if we wanted to renew it,” Hall said. “And he was taking a look at other options.”

He stayed with the company.

And this year, he won the Masters, which made him $576,000 richer, and the British Open, which made him $493,500 richer, and became richer still with the club manufacturer’s bonus.

Manufacturers pay players between $50,000 and $4 million to use their clubs--you can guess who is at the high end (hint Titleist pays him about twice as much as the next-best contract). It seems like a lot until you consider the industry did $1.7 billion in sales last year.

“On Monday after a win, the phone calls pick up and the salesmen get better receptions at the stores,” Hall says, linking golf with the stock car adage of “win on Sunday, buy on Monday.”

Taylor Made salesmen apparently have had some busy Mondays this year.

Among Hall’s haul are O’Meara, Janzen, Stricker, Ernie Els and Tom Lehman in the top 30 on the PGA Tour money list, plus senior tour players Larry Nelson and John Bland and LPGA players Michelle McGann and Helen Alfredsson.

“We try to go after guys who have been major winners or who we think could be major winners,” Hall said. “Other companies look to sign younger players, but we go for quality over quantity.”

With that in mind, Hall, a former LPGA Tour player--”My mother thought I was a success. Thank goodness for mothers,” she said--deals with managers and players, stretching a budget, her offers being played against those of other companies.

“Did you see the movie ‘Jerry Maguire’?” she asks. “Well, Mark O’Meara and some managers are always calling me and saying, ‘Debbie, show me the money.’ ”

To which she responds, “Show me the wins.”

O’Meara has no problem there, at least this year.

No problem for Janzen, either, and his contract is up after this year. Nothing helps a salary run better than a U.S. Open victory.

A SPECIAL MEMORY

Amy Alcott has a framed Jim Murray column in her trophy case in Santa Monica.

No, not a story about her winning the Dinah Shore or $1 million.

“During the course of my golf career, he wrote three articles about me,” she said. “Very early, he wrote ‘Bet on the Girl,’ basically about a round of golf I played with him out at Riviera when I was 14 years old. He talked about how I was waiting with shoes and clubs at 5:30 in the morning. Asked why was I waiting for such a hacker. . . . That I had the eyes and heart of a racehorse. . . . That he expected to come out and play with a gal that looked like Tugboat Annie at 14, and that someday the U.S. Open champion will be sitting in front of her locker . . . a mere wisp of a thing that giggles.

“Three weeks ago, at the [Senior] U.S. Open, I saw him and it was quite apropos that I would run into him there, at Riviera.”

Possibly, because Alcott has won five majors, among them the 1980 U.S. Women’s Open.

THE DOCTOR IS IN

The PGA Tour is at Castle Rock, Colo., this week, playing the Sprint International, an event that uses the modified Stableford point system to determine its champion.

Forget the points. Who was Stableford?

Turns out that he was Frank Stableford, not a golf hustler, according to the Golf Encyclopedia--though his point system might seem a way to get into your pocket--but a doctor with the British army in the Boer War.

After getting back from South Africa in 1907, he played to a handicap of plus-one, got bored and on May 16, 1932, played the first points match, using his system, at Wallasey Links in Cheshire, England. Players earn points with birdies and eagles, lose points with bogeys or worse.

In case you wanted to know.

ENOUGH ALREADY

After signing for a two-over-par 74 on Monday at Pebble Beach, John Daly has decided he will not play any more conventional PGA Tour events this year, though he is playing in the Sprint International.

“I’ve had it with this,” he said. “It ain’t worth it.”

Daly said he will play “only fun events,” which include the Shark Shootout at Sherwood.

SHORT PUTTS

The USGA is shopping for a course for the 2003 Ryder Cup, with Colonial in Fort Worth, Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina and Medinah near Chicago at the head of the race. . . . Don’t expect Bill Glasson to be there. Never a particular fan of match play, he says, “My goal is to be the first person to become eligible for the Ryder Cup and politely decline.” . . . At 20, LPGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open winner Se Ri Pak of South Korea understands the importance of wins in major championships, and also has healthy aspirations: “I know I have to win majors for Hall of Fame.” . . . The Victims of Injustice, Pain and Suffering Foundation will hold a golf tournament at Riviera on Monday. Details: (213) 920-0438.