Okamoto Triumphs by a Stroke : Japanese Golfer Holds Off King With Solid Back 9

Neither player showed any emotion, but during the back nine Sunday at Bernardo Heights Country Club, Betsy King conceded she felt pressure, and Ayako Okamoto said she relished what was basically match-play competition.

Okamoto was three shots better than King over the final nine holes and won the Kyocera Inamori Golf Classic by one stroke over King.

Okamoto, the top Japanese female golfer, who led after each of the first three rounds, shot a two-under-par 70 (35-35) to finish at 13-under 275. King, who played in a threesome with Okamoto and Pat Bradley, shot a 68, including a blistering 30 on the front nine.

“When I made the turn, I felt I had a good chance to win,” said King, who won the Nabisco Dinah Shore in a playoff with Patty Sheehan last week. “Then somebody came in and played for me the back nine. When you’re up there in the lead week after week, the mental aspect wears on you.”

Throughout the week, the other golfers talked about how tough Okamoto was mentally. On Sunday, she proved it.

“I was relaxed because my only competition was in the group with me,” said Okamoto, speaking through her manager and translator, Margie Kato. “If you know who you’re playing against, it makes it easier.”

Okamoto--who has never played in a formal match-play competition--started the day with a three-stroke lead over King, but that quickly evaporated.

“She was playing such perfect golf on the front nine,” Okamoto said. “I thought I could have been playing with a record breaker. I probably should have been more aggressive and self-centered out there and thought only about my golf, but Betsy’s golf was hard to ignore.”

After King bogeyed the 10th and 11th holes and Okamoto parred them, the two were tied at 12-under.

“At the turn, I was still trying to play aggressively and make some more birdies,” said King, who birdied the first three holes and had six birdies on the front nine. “Making bogeys at 10 and 11 turned it around for me.”

Both players parred 12, 13 and 15 and birdied 14. After King made a 12-foot birdie putt on 14, Okamoto immediately squelched her momentum by making a 10-foot putt.

The hole that determined the winner was the par-4, 368-yard 16th. King bogeyed it, Okamoto parred it.

On their second shots, Okamoto and King hit their irons over the green to the left of the hole. King hit a 5-iron from 154 yards and Okamoto a 3-iron from 175 yards.

Then came the battle of the chips that turned out to be pivotal. King’s chip from the edge of the grass near the cart path landed short of the green. Two shots later, she had a bogey.

“I hit a poor chip, a flop shot,” King said. “I was opening the blade too much and left it short.”

King bogeyed No. 16 in three of the four rounds this tournament. “Obviously that was the hole that conquered me,” King said. “It’s not that tough of a hole.” But she said she misjudged the direction of the wind.

“That was the key hole,” Okamoto said. “If Betsy had a two- or three-stroke lead, she probably would have hit a good shot. But the pressure was on. I would have thought of her as a god if she made a great shot.”

With her ball lying just off the green, Okamoto made a beautiful chip to within a foot of the hole.

“I thought I could win after that hole,” said Okamoto, who has been cautiously optimistic throughout the week.

On 17, King salvaged a par with a chip out of the sand and a 12-foot putt. On Okamoto’s second shot, her 6-iron fell just short of the bunker. That’s when she said she felt “luck might be on her side.”

That brought Okamoto and King to the final hole, where the largest and loudest gallery of the tournament was waiting to greet them.

Okamoto hit her drive to the back fringe of the green, which she said was approximately 25 steps from the hole. Hitting the same type of shot she hit in the first round on that hole, Okamoto chipped to within two feet of the hole.

King’s birdie attempt from about 45 feet slid by the hole. Okamoto tapped in for par and a victory.

After the victory ceremony, Okamoto and Kato shared a bottle of sake with the media.

“This win relieves a lot of the pressure,” Okamoto said, referring to members of the Japanese media, many of whom turned up in San Diego on Sunday. “So many people in Japan expect me to win that I’m relieved that I won.”

While sipping sake and drinking an American beer, Okamoto said: “Whenever I go to Japan, I have to take something back.”

This time she has a victory and a $30,000 winner’s check.