LPGA Tournament at San Diego : Okamoto 1-Ups King in What Is Virtually a Match Play Final Day

Neither player shows any emotion, but during the final nine on Sunday afternoon at Bernardo Heights Country Club, Betsy King admitted to feeling pressure while Ayako Okamoto said she relished what was basically a match play final.

Okamoto was three shots better than King over the final nine holes to win the Kyocera Inamori golf tournament by one stroke over King.

The top Japanese woman golfer, who led after each of the first three rounds, shot a 70 (35-35) to finish at 13-under 275 with a one-stroke victory.

King shot a 68, including a blistering 30 on the front nine, but lost a two-stroke lead on the back side.

“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 turn. When you’re up there in the lead week after week, the mental aspect wears on you.”

Throughout the week, the 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 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 formal match play competition--started the day with a three-stroke lead over King, but that quickly evaporated.

“She (King) 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 bogies 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, both Okamoto and King hit their irons over the green to the left of the hole. 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 three of the four rounds in this tournament. “Obviously that was the hole that conquered me,” King said.

“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 Okamoto’s ball lying just off the green, she 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.