Glendale LPGA Tournament : King Has 2-Shot Lead After Tying Course Record With a 67 in Rain

If Don Andersen, the former USC football publicist turned promoter, wants to get out of the golf tournament business, he could hire out as a rain maker.

When Andersen schedules the GNA-Glendale Federal LPGA tournament at Oakmont, that’s better than a rain dance.

Two years ago, when the Glendale course first played host to the LPGA event, it snowed on the course early in the week and rain delayed play on several occasions.

Last year, an off-and-on rain first reduced the tournament to 54 holes, then caused it to be completed on Monday. There may never have been another tournament like it.

Chris Johnson, the winner, played 8 1/2 holes Thursday, 27 1/2 Friday, 12 1/2 Saturday, none Sunday and finished with 5 1/2 Monday.

This year, after a magnificent warm, sunny day for Wednesday’s pro-am, the rains came Thursday as Andersen was watching the first group tee off. It rained all day--sometimes hard, sometimes only a drizzle--but for the first time since 1985, everyone finished 18 holes.

And the persistent rain didn’t prevent the women professionals from shooting some excellent golf.

Betsy King, 1984 LPGA player of the year, equaled Johnson’s course record with a five-under-par 67.

“It was one of those days where everything is going for you,” King said. “I putted extremely well and I chipped in once. I needed a round like this because I’ve been struggling. I missed the cut the last two weeks.”

The 32-35 round over Oakmont’s 6,288-yard, par-72 course gave King a two-stroke lead over Alice Ritzman and Sally Little.

Also under par were Kathryn Young, with a 70, and Shelley Hamlin, Cathy Gerring and 1985 champion Jan Stephenson, with 71s.

Hamlin, winless since 1978, apparently relishes wet conditions at Oakmont. Last year she shared the 36-hole lead before fading to a disastrous 81 in the final round.

Gerring, younger sister of PGA pro Bill Kratzert, lost in a playoff last Monday in the Women’s Kemper Open in Hawaii after finishing at 12 under par. She lost to Jane Geddes, the Women’s Open champion, who shot 74 Thursday.

Surprisingly, King, Ritzman and Little all said the poor conditions contributed to their low rounds.

“The rain softened the greens, so they held (approach shots) pretty well,” King said. “And it also made them putt easier because you could control the speed of the ball. Earlier in the week, the greens were so slick and fast that you couldn’t control the ball.”

King needed only 25 putts in shooting seven birdies and two bogeys. She chipped in on No. 9 for a birdie from a difficult downhill lie just off the green.

“It was one of those cases where all you hoped for was to get it up and down in two, and it went in the hole,” King said.

Poor tee shots caused her bogeys. On No. 6, a 395-yard par-4, King drove into a stand of trees and lost a shot when she had to chip back to the fairway. On No. 14, a 155-yard par-3, King’s tee shot buried itself in a bunker and her explosion shot wound up 30 feet from the cup.

Ritzman, one of the few professional golfers from Montana, has yet to win in 10 years on the LPGA Tour.

“This was the kind of a day where if you are playing well, you can maintain concentration and keep going,” Ritzman said. “That’s what I did, but I know if you aren’t playing well, you can let the round get away from you.”

It got away from a number of players, and even some of the favorites had difficult times. Pat Bradley, 1986 player of the year, had a 74, Amy Alcott a 75 and defending champion Johnson a 78.

There were 36 rounds of 80 or higher among the 144 starters, including Hall of Famer Kathy Whitworth, who had an 84.

Little, a native South African who has a reputation as a bad-weather player, said a day like Thursday gets her “psyched up” because she knows it will work to her advantage.

“The worse the weather, the harder I play, the more I concentrate, because in adverse conditions, I know some players will let up,” she said. “I know that gives me an edge. That’s the game.”

Little, one of the leading players on the women’s tour a few years ago, has not won since 1982, the year she became an American citizen. A series of operations kept her off the tour in 1983, and it wasn’t until last year that she regained the strength to play at a competitive level.

“When you get up in the morning and the last thing you want to do is play golf, it is difficult to play well,” she said. “That’s the way I felt. But now I feel like I’m approaching the attitude I used to have. I have a love of the game again.

“I know the feeling that comes from playing well because I was up there (among the leaders) for a long time. Basically, getting back there is a matter of confidence, and I’m getting more every day.”