LPGA Tournament at Santa Barbara : Course Switch Turns Leaders Into Followers

As expected, the leaders became the followers Saturday when the split field switched courses for the second round of the $300,000 Santa Barbara Open.

The eight players who broke par Friday at Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta were swallowed up Saturday by the more challenging La Purisima Golf Course in Lompoc, which was made even more difficult by heavy winds.

And those who survived La Purisima on Friday enjoyed the more pleasant weather, wider fairways and softer greens Saturday at Sandpiper, flip-flopping the leader board.

That left the tournament wide open entering today’s final round at Sandpiper.

Ayako Okamoto of Japan, one of only six players to match par Friday at La Purisima, shot a three-under-par 69 at Sandpiper to open a one-stroke lead with a two-round total of 141.

Tied at 142 are Jan Stephenson, Alice Ritzman and Patty Sheehan, who missed a three-foot par putt on the 18th hole that would have tied her for the lead.

Amy Alcott, Beth Daniel and Val Skinner are at 143, Beverly Klass is at even-par 144, Donna Caponi and Kathy Postlewait are at 145 and Amy Benz and Barb Thomas are at 146.

The 12 low scorers all played Saturday at Sandpiper.

“This was heaven,” said Stephenson, who followed a two-over-par 74 at La Purisima with a 68, the day’s low round. “Once you get La Purisima over with, it makes you really appreciate this golf course.”

Stephenson was stopped for speeding on her way to the course by a highway patrolman, and the officer threatened to take her to jail because she couldn’t give him a California address, she said.

She said she was shaking and nearly in tears when she got to the course, but at least she didn’t have to play La Purisima again.

A speeding ticket must have seemed minor compared to what was being dished out 40 miles to the north in Lompoc.

Consider:

--Missie McGeorge, whose six-under-par 66 at Sandpiper gave her a two-stroke lead after the first round, shot an 85 at La Purisima and is 10 strokes behind Okamoto.

--Dale Eggeling, who was second at 68, shot an 80 and is at 148.

--Jane Geddes, a two-time winner this season who was third at 69, shot a 79 and is also at 148.

--In winds that reportedly reached 40 m.p.h., Shirley Furlong’s two-over-par 74 was the day’s low round.

--Only one of the 84 players who made the cut, Susan Sanders at 78-76--154, improved upon her Sandpiper score Saturday at La Purisima.

“Mother Nature was very cranky today,” Eggeling said. “It would maybe have been better to play everyone on the same course each day so that we all got the same conditions.”

The 142-woman field was split between the two courses, with half playing La Purisima on Friday and the other half playing there on Saturday.

“By today,” Eggeling said, “the greens on La Purisima had gotten very soft and hard to putt on. Putting was extremely difficult because it was hard even to stand up straight.”

Except for a light breeze, the conditions were almost ideal at Sandpiper, where Okamoto birdied three of the last seven holes under bright, sunny skies.

After winning the Kyocera Inamori tournament last week in San Diego, Okamoto said she is feeling a lot of pressure this week.

She shot even-par 36 over the front nine, but “I concentrated better on the back nine and got it closer to the hole,” she said through an interpreter.

Sheehan, who played in a threesome with Stephenson and Shelley Hamlin, said it was difficult to concentrate Saturday at Sandpiper, given the picturesque surroundings and the knowledge that, having survived La Purisima, the worst was over.

At one point, she said, somebody in the gallery popped a beer.

“I asked him, ‘Are those birdie beers?’ ” Sheehan said. “He said they were, ‘but don’t make too many because I want to walk out of here.’

“And I said, ‘I hope you stumble out of here.”

At La Purisima, everybody stumbled out.