WHO’S NO. 1? . . . : . . . It’s Betsy King--Tell It to LPGA : Though 1984 Player of Year, She Still Receives Runner-Up Billing

Betsy King had been second banana for so long that now that she is No. 1 in the Ladies Professional Golf Assn., she isn’t quite sure what to expect.

At Furman University, she was one of the country’s finest collegiate golfers. But she took second billing on her own team for three years to Beth Daniel, who won a couple of U.S. Amateur titles during that period.

As an LPGA rookie in 1978, King had an outstanding first year. But another rookie, Nancy Lopez, won nine tournaments, among them a record five in a row.

King won her first professional tournament in 1981, but it was in Japan and hardly anyone noticed. It took her nearly seven years to win an LPGA event, the 1984 Kemper Open in Hawaii. Once she had won, though, she won twice again and finished the year as the tour’s leading money winner with $266,771, and was Rolex Player of the Year.

That makes her the No. 1 player on the women’s tour. But she’s still not on the marquees.

When the posters went up and the ads were ordered for the GNA (Great Northern Annuity) tournament, a $250,000 event beginning today at the Oakmont Country Club in Glendale, the names on display were Amy Alcott, JoAnne Carner, Jan Stephenson, Pat Bradley, Patty Sheehan and Lopez.

Does it bother King?

Not so you’d notice. A soft-spoken woman of 29 from Limekiln, Pa., she admitted that she never thought about being Player of the Year. In fact, she said Tuesday that she still didn’t know how that designation was determined.

So she was advised that points are awarded to the first five finishers of each tournament on a 9-6-4-2-1 scale.

“It sort of rewards consistency and persistence, doesn’t it?” she said.

King has both.

She had 12 finishes in the top five, including wins in the Kemper, Orlando and Columbia Savings tournament at Denver. There’s the consistency.

She played in 30 tournaments, more than any other of the 20 top money winners. There’s the persistence.

When the 1985 season opened in Florida, the 5-foot 6-inch blue-eyed blonde wondered if 1984 had all been a dream. She wondered if she could do it again.

“I was kind of surprised at what happened last year,” she said. “I started out sort of normal, then I won in Hawaii and played well the rest of the year.

“Being Player of the Year doesn’t last long. This is a new season. I still don’t think about things like that. I’m not very goal-oriented. I just work on my game and go out and play. If you get too goal-oriented, you get too concerned about other players.

“I get my satisfaction from hitting shots the way I want to hit them. There’s always something I can do better.”

King won the year’s fifth tournament, the Samaritan Turquoise at Phoenix. Typically, she downplayed her success.

“I felt I played better at Tucson, where I finished second, than I did at Phoenix,” she said. “It was nice to win so early, but Patty (Sheehan) lost it more than I won it.”

Sheehan, winner of four tournaments last year, had a two-shot lead going to the final hole. Sheehan’s second shot, a wedge, missed the green and she chipped up about eight feet from the hole. King was just short of the green with her second shot and had a 30-foot putt from the fringe for a birdie. She made the putt, Sheehan missed hers, and the two-shot swing brought about a playoff.

Once given the chance to win, King wasted little time. She hit a 3-iron second shot on the par-5 playoff hole that stopped six feet from the hole, then sank the putt for an eagle.

“I bought a home in Phoenix, so that made winning there nice,” she said. “And winning so early took some of the pressure off. I think I can finish high consistently, and the more times you’re up there, it’s obvious that you have more chances to win if somebody else stumbles, like Patty did at Phoenix.

“When I first came out on tour, I thought I would win quickly. Then I got so I thought I might not ever win.”

King dates her turnaround to a day in Portland in 1980 when she was playing with Donna White and was introduced to White’s teacher, Ed Oldfield of Phoenix.

“I was at the lowest point in my career when I went to see him,” she said. “I was convinced that my potential was limited, the way I was swinging. Ed made some radical changes and he’s still making changes. I was so intent on having him work on my game that I have spent the last five winters in Phoenix. And I see him at least once every two weeks all year long.”

Oldfield teaches about a dozen woman pros, among them Stephenson, Lauri Peterson, Barb Thomas and Jane Blalock, winner of last week’s Kemper Open.

Oakmont’s tree-lined fairways and slick, undulating greens will prove a tough challenge for the women, King predicted after getting her first look at the 61-year-old course.

“I doubt if anyone will shoot better than five under par for four rounds,” said King, who when not golfing is involved with the LPGA Christian Fellowship. “It favors the long, straight hitter because it’s tough to scramble on, and you have to carry the ball to the greens because they’re elevated a bit. The layout of the course is excellent. It’s like an Open course. You could play the U.S. Open on it if the rough was a little thicker. It’ll be a good test for us.”