LPGA Notebook : Inkster Is OK but Out of Tournament After Fainting

Thursday was one of the few times in her golf career when Juli Inkster fell on her face.

Inkster, 24, the sixth leading LPGA money winner in 1984, was preparing for her 11:49 a.m. starting time in the first round of the $330,000 Uniden Invitational at Mesa Verde Country Club in Costa Mesa when she fainted in her hotel room, fell and injured her nose.

X-rays taken at Costa Mesa Medical Center indicated Inkster’s nose wasn’t broken but there was cartilage damage. She was treated and released and went home to Los Altos, Calif.

Inkster may be the only athlete to be honored as rookie of the year two years in a row. She won Golf Digest’s award after joining the tour and winning three tournaments late in the 1983 season, then won the LPGA’s award after her first full season in ’84.

Two other golfers withdrew Thursday. Beth Solomon, 32, of Middletown, Ind., phoned in sick with the flu, while Debbie Massey, 34, of Hilton Head, S.C., shot one of the day’s higher rounds of 81 and withdrew, complaining of sinusitis.

Inkster and Solomon, who were scheduled to play in the same threesome, were replaced by Dee Dee Lasker, 25, of Hinsdale, Ill., and Mindy Moore, 31, of Boca Raton, Fla.

Mistaken Identity: The Japanese are here again, with a dozen members of the Japanese LPGA given LPGA exemptions to play at Costa Mesa for the second year in a row, and a sizable press corps in tow to chronicle their every stroke.

Tournament officials credentialed 25 media representatives from Japan and 20 from Japanese-language publications in the Los Angeles area.

Since caddies fluent in Japanese are at a premium locally, interpreters were provided to follow the players around.

Lenore Muraoka didn’t need one, however. Although she was the tournament leader briefly at three under par Thursday, excitement among the Japanese media died down when it was learned she’s an American from Honolulu in her sixth year on the tour.

Then even the American press lost interest when she triple-bogeyed the 14th hole to go one over par, finishing at 34-41--75.

Muraoka won the United Virginia Bank Classic on the LPGA tour last season.

Meanwhile, Back On No. 10: Mesa Verde’s infamous 451-yard 10th hole, rated third-toughest on the LPGA tour at par-four last year, had only 12 birdies and 253 bogeys or worse in the ’84 Uniden.

To make it easier on the women this year, par for the straightaway hole was changed to five, raising the 18-hole total from 71 to 72.

“It won’t make any difference,” said Ken Young, whose company produces several LPGA tournaments. “It’s always been (the same as) a par-five, anyway. The women won’t beat this course.”

Young said the course, with its soft, lush fairways, plays even longer than its listed 6,085 yards, although he said the measurement was “accurate.”

Judy Clark, a stroke off the lead at one-under-par 71, said the 378-yard fifth hole may be the toughest par on the course now. It yielded only four birdies Thursday, one to co-leader Pat Meyers, who also birdied 10.

“They fixed No. 10 and now we can’t reach No. 5,” Clark said. “But I like the course. You have to do everything well here to score well.”

Co-leader Alice Miller said her score Thursday was “one of the hardest 70s I’ve ever shot. Even par will be a good number this week.”

No winner has finished under par in four previous LPGA tournaments at Mesa Verde.

Monday, the 10th will go back to a par-four for women.

Kelly Adams, a Mesa Verde women’s member, said: “I’ve been playing that hole for 17 years and it’s always been a four. I average about a six.”

If You Can’t Drive for Long Distance, You Can Still Phone It: So, you’re in the market for a telephone, maybe one of those new-fangled cordless jobs, and you need it fast. Where do you go?

To Mesa Verde Country Club, of course.

Uniden, the Japanese phone manufacturer which is sponsoring this week’s tournament, has set up shop right next to the clubhouse, peddling its latest wares at “LPGA Tournament Special” rates. There, golf spectators can pick up a low-budget model for $29.95 or indulge in a cordless singing telephone for $199.95--slashed from its regular price of $399.95.

Just the thing for the golfer who has everything. Make sure you call all your friends right from the scene of your first hole-in-one.

Actually, it isn’t bad strategy. Golf fans have money and the phones are selling. Uniden representative Mike Naito said the booth sold about a dozen phones Thursday.

“We expect more Saturday and Sunday,” Naito said. Why? “More people.”

Go for the Green: That, at least, seems to be the thinking on the part of the food-and-drink concessionaires working the tournament this week. If you get the munchies while following Jan Stephensen and Nancy Lopez around Mesa Verde, it’s going to cost you.

Submarine sandwiches are going for $4 apiece, but hamburgers and croissant sandwiches can be had for the bargain price of $3. Hot dogs run $2 and a soft drink costs $1.25.

If you like the harder stuff, there are cocktail booths set up for your convenience. Prices: mixed drinks--$2.25; beer--$1.50; wine--$1.50.

By Sunday, brown bags could become as common a sight in the galleries as alligator shirts and binoculars.