Daniel and Bradley Are Neck and Neck Out of Fairbanks Ranch Gate

The Fairbanks Ranch Country Club, known for hosting the three-day equestrian event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, forced at least one golfer Thursday to question whether what she found on the course was her golf ball or an unexpected gift left over from a four-legged fan.

“They say golf tournaments are like a horse race,” Amy Alcott said, “but this is ridiculous.”

Alcott was one of six golfers to shoot under par on a sunny and windy day at Fairbanks in Thursday’s opening round of the LPGA Kyocera Inamori tournament.

Alcott shot a one-under-par 71 to tie Barbara Barrows of San Diego, Pat Meyers and Lynn Stroney for second place after the opening round.

They are one stroke behind co-leaders Beth Daniel and Pat Bradley, who both shot two-under par 70s.

Daniel, winless on the tour since July, 1983, said this was one of the best opening rounds she’s played this year.

Playing the back nine first, Daniel bogeyed the first two holes, but she recovered to finish with five birdies and only one other bogey.

Thursday’s crowd--what there was of it--was quiet even for a golf tournament. On many holes, the participants on the course seemed to outnumber the spectators. Officials had predicted a crowd of 5,000, but were lucky to have half that in attendance Thursday.

As for the water-filled course, which includes more than 200 bunkers and 250 palm trees, there was oohing at its beauty and booing at its quality.

“This course is very young,” Daniel said. “There is a lot crabgrass, and the course is not in real good shape.

“It’s also not the best layout I’ve ever seen . . . even the trees are small.”

On and on it goes.

“The fairways are a little rough,” Bradley said, “and I think they were right in allowing us to move the ball. The lies in the rough are no gift at all, and I took full advantage of the preferred lies.”

The USGA rule book states that a ball lying on a fairway “may be lifted and cleaned, without penalty, and placed within six inches of where it originally lay, not nearer the hole, and so as to preserve as nearly as possible the stance required to play from the original lie.”

USGA officials do not like to invoke the preferred lie rule, but felt it was necessary because of the condition of the Bermuda grass on the Fairbanks course. Blame the frost for the condition of the grass.

Blame a local seafood restaurant for forcing two-time defending champion Patty Sheehan and Lauren Howe to withdraw from the tournament.

The two players ate dinner together on Wednesday night at the restaurant, and both came down with food poisoning.

Sheehan entered this week as the leader in the LPGA point standings. She won the Sarasota tournament, finished second in the Samaritan Turquoise and tied for second in the Elizabeth Arden.

Other players forced to withdraw from the tournament were Karen Permezel with the flu, Debbie Massey with a pinched nerve and Patti Rizzo because of fatigue. Massey played nine holes before withdrawing, and Rizzo played 11 holes.

Of the players who did play, and played well, there were some surprises:

- Barrow actually led the tournament after 15 holes, but she bogeyed two of the last three holes. She has only one career victory, the Birmingham tournament in 1980, and she missed the cut in five of the six tournaments she has played this year. In the sixth, the GNA Classic, she finished tied for 63rd place.

- Meyers hasn’t won a tournament since 1979, when she won the Greater Baltimore Open. This year, her top finish was a tie for 10th in the GNA tournament.

- Stroney, who played in the first threesome of the day and teed off at 7:30 a.m., has never won a tournament. Her top finish this year was 40th in the Elizabeth Arden.

- Then there’s Cindy Figg, a 26-year old who hasn’t finished higher than 44th this season. That was in the Women’s Kemper Open. On Thursday, she shot even par. Imagine how excited she was when she found herself three-under par after 11 holes. Then she bogeyed the 12th, 13th and 15th holes.

“Everything was going good, but I just wasn’t able to keep the momentum going,” Figg said.

On the tour, Figg is probably known more for her elegant appearance in Fairway Magazine as Dolly Levi from “Hello Dolly” than for her drives.

“That was really fun,” Figg said. “It showed a different side of the players on the tour. It shows we can have fun.”

Friday’s pairings

No. 1 Tee:

7:30 a.m.--Bertsch, Cassaday, Pager.

7:39--Smith, Hite, Klass.

7:48--Fogleman, Dougherty, Whitmire.

7:57--Lock, Moore, Edge.

8:06--Hall, Hunt, Mant.

8:15--Pacillo, Monaghan, Bession.

8:24--Berning, O’Brien, Nause.

8:33--Hammel, Palmer, Britz.

8:42--Hamlin, Muraoka, Morse.

8:51--Moxness, Bradley, Massey.

9:00--Caponi, Figueras-Dotti, Pearson.

9:09--Okamoto, Postlewait, Austin.

11:49--Hikage, Blackwelder, Zimmerman.

11:58--Daniel, Meyers, Bunkowsky.

12:07 p.m.--Strebig, Quinlan, Lauer.

12:16--Adams, Whitworth, Kazmierski.

12:25--Garbacz, Little, Washam.

12:34--Charbonnier, Sanders, Ferro.

12:43--Rinker, Kennedy, Shipman.

12:52--Wood, West, Drew.

1:01--Eggeling, Flom, Rubin.

1:19--Turner, Maunder, Dickerson.

1:28--Ellis, Benz, Marino.

No. 10 Tee:

7:34--Erti, Luckhurst, DeLong.

7:43--Dwyer, Connelly, Barrow.

7:52--Reinhardt, Meisterlin, Parks.

8:01--Gowan, Jessen, Montgomery.

8:10--Floyd, Skinner, Figg.

8:19--Scranton, Farwig, Permezel.

8:28--Hurlbut, Galbraith, Kelly.

8:37--Sheehan, Spencer-Devlin, King.

8:46--Anderson, Inkster, Howe.

8:55--Stephenson, Clark, Walker.

9:04--Baker, Pulz, Solomon.

9:13--Rizzo, Bertolaccini, Furlong.

11:45--Blalock, Thomas, Crafter.

11:54--Geddes, Alcott, Fergon.

12:03 p.m.--Hill, Cole, Barrett.

12:12--Coles, Stacy, Kohihaas.

12:21--Prentice, Rinker, Hagge.

12:30--Chillemi, Stroney, Ward.

12:39--Skinner, Nilsson, Mizrahie.

12:48--Hirata, Berdoy, Porter.

12:57--Leveque, Finney, McAllister.

1:06--Lasker, Young, Blair.

1:15--Panton, Davis, Parker.

1:24--Widman, Cindy Mackey, Patty Hayes.