Carner Leads LPGA Field by 5 Entering Final Round

JoAnne Carner slipped to a two-over-par 74 Saturday but still managed to stretch her lead in the $200,000 Elizabeth Arden golf tournament to five strokes as the rest of the leaders also faltered.

Carner stood at six-under-par 210 with one round to go. She enters today’s final round with a comfortable lead over Janet Coles, Jane Blalock, Alice Miller and Pat Bradley, who are tied at 215.

Coles, with a 70, was one of only five players to better par on the 6,092-yard course. Patti Rizzo fired a 68 to put her at 218 for the tournament.

While many of the golfers had trouble with high winds Friday, the weather conditions were perfect Saturday. But Carner said the greens were set up much tougher.

“I think one of the differences (Saturday) was that the pins were all the way back,” said Carner, who has won 40 Ladies Professional Golf Assn. tournaments. “You couldn’t get the ball as close, and the rough is tough around the greens. Everybody else shot as bad as I did.”

The pin placement didn’t seem to bother Carner at first as she ripped off three straight birdies to start the day. But her game did a quick turnaround at that point, and she suffered through five bogeys and one double bogey the rest of the way.

“I started so hot, hitting and putting well,” Carner said. “Then I started relaxing unintentionally and I couldn’t get going. In our group, everybody lost concentration. I was trying to get geared up, but I couldn’t.”

Carner shot a 41 on the back side, getting a double bogey on the 14th hole.

But the round didn’t hurt Carner’s standing on the leader board as Miller, her closest competitor after three rounds, shot a 76. Blalock shot a 72 Saturday, and Bradley equalled Carner’s 74.

Defending champion Patty Sheehan carded a 74 to fall nine strokes off the pace.

Other than Rizzo and Coles, only Donna White, Lori Garbacz and Japan’s Ayako Okamoto beat par. White had a 70, while Garbacz and Okamoto were at 71.