Santa Barbara Open : Okamoto Helps Stephenson End Drought

It will be noted that Jan Stephenson won the $300,000 Santa Barbara Open Sunday when Ayako Okamoto missed a two-foot, par-saving putt on the 17th hole at the Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta.

It was the second bogey in six holes for Okamoto, who also had a double bogey on the 11th hole, and left her tied for second place with Jane Geddes at even-par 216, one-stroke behind Stephenson.

Stephenson, playing in the last threesome of the day with Okamoto, the second-round leader, and Alice Ritzman, made a four-foot putt for par on the 18th hole for her 14th career victory, but first since 1985.

She won $45,000.

But the results weren’t that clear-cut to Geddes, whose 69-79-68--216 included a seven-over-par round in 40 m.p.h. winds Saturday at La Purisima Golf Course in Lompoc and left her tied for second with Okamoto.

Geddes and Okamoto each won $24,000.

Geddes, a two-time winner this season who is second on the money list, believed that her fate was determined earlier in the week when she was included in the half of the field that had to play Saturday at La Purisima.

The field was split for the first two rounds of the 54-hole tournament, with half playing La Purisima on Friday and the other half playing there on Saturday.

The problem was, the more challenging Lompoc course was made even more difficult on Saturday by the heavy winds that didn’t come up on Friday.

The scores soared and all but one of the eight players who broke par Friday at Sandpiper were left out of contention.

Geddes was the only one who wasn’t, and that was only because she made four birdies Sunday and shot a four-under-par 68, which tied her for low round of the day with Alison Finney.

“I don’t think a tournament should be won or lost by the luck of where you play,” Geddes said calmly as she walked off the 18th green about 90 minutes before Stephenson and Okamoto.

At the time, it didn’t seem like Geddes would be close at the end.

But then Okamoto, who won the Kyocera Inamori tournament last week in San Diego, began to falter.

Three under par at the start of the round, Okamoto birdied the first hole to go four under and stayed there until the par-three 11th, when she overshot the green on her tee shot, then flubbed a chip shot.

Her double bogey gave Stephenson a one-stroke lead and suddenly, Okamoto said later, her clubs got heavier.

In the clubhouse, Geddes kept an eye on the leader board.

Okamoto’s approach shot on the 13th hole landed in a barranca and led to a bogey that put Stephenson ahead by two.

Stephenson’s bogey on the 14th cut her lead to one stroke, and then she missed a par-saving putt from six feet on the 17th green, giving Okamoto a chance to tie.

Stephenson didn’t want to watch.

“I walked away,” she said. “I went to the 18th tee because I knew I’d probably blown my chance. But when the crowd went, ‘Ohhhhhhh,’ I couldn’t believe it.”

Okamoto had blown a two-foot putt, leaving her at even-par.

“The stroke was good and everything was in line,” Okamoto said through an interpreter. “It just missed. Maybe God was smiling on Stephenson.”

Fate certainly wasn’t on the side of Geddes, who warmed up for a possible playoff as Stephenson sank her winning putt on the 18th hole.

Clearly frustrated, Geddes said that the inaugural tournament “turned out to be a luck of the draw rather than a test of golf.”

Of the 14 low scorers, only Geddes played at La Purisima on Saturday.

“I don’t think that had anything to do with it,” Stephenson said. “Hey, we had to play that golf course, too, and it wasn’t any picnic when we played there on Friday.”

But Stephenson, who blew a six-stroke lead last month at Tucson, also said: “There is a certain luck in the draw. That’s golf. This time it happened right for me.”

Stephenson, who shot a one-over-par 73 Sunday, didn’t want anything to detract from her first tour victory since she won at Glendale more than two years ago.

“I’m glad I finally broke through,” she said, “because every time I came to a tournament the media would say, ‘You haven’t won since ’85. Do you think you’ve lost it?’ Every Sunday, I’d blow it and they’d say, ‘Do you think you’re going to blow it again?’ ”

She didn’t blow it Sunday, and it didn’t sit well with Geddes.

“I’m very frustrated,” she said. “I finished second and I feel like I’ve been punished.”