LPGA Tournament at San Diego : Whitworth, 47, Shoots 67 and Is One Shot Off the Pace

At 6:30 Wednesday morning--a half-hour before the pro-am was scheduled to start--Kathy Whitworth was playing nine holes at the Bernardo Heights Country Club.

The Ladies Professional Golf Assn.’s all-time leading winner with 88 victories was not one of the top 54 pros invited to play in the pro-am, so she had to prepare for the Kyocera Inamori tournament on her own.

But that didn’t bother the 47-year-old Whitworth, who said playing golf is “always a labor of love.

“I’ve always enjoyed what I’m doing. Sometimes I think, ‘What would you do if you quit?’ Then this (not playing well) doesn’t seem so bad, and you go out and hit some more practice balls.”

That’s exactly what Whitworth did later Wednesday morning.

On Thursday, Whitworth made five birdies and shot a five-under- par 67 (33-34) for her best round in almost two years. Incredibly, it’s just two shots off her best round ever in 28 years on the LPGA tour.

“Any time you play well, you’re thrilled,” Whitworth said, “but it means more to me now than it did 20 years ago. Now, it’s a quiet excitement. I don’t need the rah-rah anymore.”

Whitworth’s 67 ties her with Tammy Fredrickson of Pasadena, just one shot behind leader Ayako Okamoto of Japan. Okamoto shot a 33-33, had five birdies and eagled the par-five 13th hole.

It was the best round ever for Fredrickson, whose previous best was a 69 in the opening round of her first LPGA event, the 1986 Mazda tournament.

Missie McGeorge and Penny Hammel shot 68s. Janet Anderson, Pat Bradley, Denise Strebig and Janet Coles are at 69.

Whitworth was the sentimental favorite of a small gallery of retirees who remember when the tall (5-9) Texan dominated the tour.

She was the LPGA’s leading money winner eight times. The player of the year seven times. She was the first player to reach $1,000,000 in career winnings and has earned $1,666,762 going into this season. She was inducted into the LPGA Hall of Fame in 1975.

But that was the past. Whitworth’s last victory came in the United Virginia Bank tournament in May 1985. That was the last time she shot a round as low as Thursday’s.

“I didn’t hit the ball that well,” Whitworth said, “but I made every putt I looked at. I’ve been putting so poorly for two years that this was a nice surprise.”

Whitworth sank birdie putts of 30 feet on the first hole, 10 feet on the third, 20 feet on the eighth, 6 feet on the 11th and 25 feet on the 16th.

As for the 88-degree heat, “the hotter, the better,” said Whitworth, who lives in Roanoke, Tex. “I love it. I’m in pretty good shape.”

The only older regulars on the LPGA tour are Hall of Famer JoAnne Carner (48), who shot a one-under-par 71 Thursday, and Marlene Hagge (53), who had an 80.