Walker Aiming to Settle an Old Score : Her Career Turned Around After Two Costly Scoring Errors in ’86

Until recently, Colleen Walker’s main claim to fame on the LPGA Tour was the rare double she achieved in 1986.

No, Walker didn’t win two tournaments in a row. She has won only one, the Mayflower Classic in Indianapolis last July.

Walker instead did something that she would love to forget. Twice within four weeks, she was disqualified for signing incorrect scorecards.

That double helping of unpleasantness hardly seems important now. In her seventh season as a touring pro, Walker suddenly is pushing for a place among the elite of women’s golf.

She has placed in the top eight in four consecutive tournaments, and she made a good start toward extending her streak by shooting a 68 in the opening round of the San Diego Inamori Classic Thursday at StoneRidge Country Club.

With her round of 33-35, 3 under par for the 6,042-yard course, Walker finished the first day three strokes off the pace in a six-way tie for fourth. As she put it afterward, “I like my position right now. If I just stay steady, I’ll be in there.”

Steadiness is fast becoming a trademark for Walker, 31, a graduate of Florida State University and a resident of Brandon, Fla. After she began this season with ties for 17th, ninth and 24th, she tied for sixth, eighth and fourth, then finished second to Amy Alcott in the Nabisco Dinah Shore Open in Rancho Mirage last week.

Walker’s run of success has brought her earnings of $84,686, good for third place on the season’s money list behind Alcott and Ayako Okamoto. It has boosted her career total to $426,681, including a ninth-place high of $190,315 last year.

Interestingly, Walker traces the turnaround of her career to the season marred by her two disqualifications.

“I’m not saying those incidents in ’86 had anything to do with it,” Walker said. “But two weeks after the second one, I finished second in Portland, Ore. After that, I felt I was back where I should be.

“I’ve boosted my earnings every year, but that second place, coming when it did, gave me the lift I needed.”

What made Walker’s runner-up finish in Portland especially pleasing was her disqualification two weeks earlier from the MasterCard International Pro-Am in White Plains, N.Y. She also would have placed second in that event if it hadn’t been for the second of her scorecard misadventures.

“I had already gone through the awards ceremony when I turned myself in,” Walker said. “During the press conference, I was going over my round, and when I got to the 16th or 17th hole, it suddenly dawned on me. I had totally forgotten a shot.

“What happened was that I hit a tree and somehow blanked it out of my mind. I gave myself a 5 instead of a 6. You could call it one of those ‘don’t-want-to-remember’ shots. I didn’t say anything to the media people at the time, but as soon as the press conference was over, I went to the field officials and said I’d have to disqualify myself.

“The scorer with us had the same score on her master card. It’s possible that nothing would have happened if I hadn’t said anything, but I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself.”

That disqualification cost Walker $18,500. The earlier one, in the du Maurier Classic in Toronto, carried a $2,000 penalty.

“It was pretty much the same deal,” she said. “I signed a scorecard that had me one stroke lower than I should have been. I turned myself in there, too.”

Asked if she had taken precautions to prevent any more such blunders, Walker said, “Yes, I’ve been more careful ever since. I put my score down every other hole, and my caddy keeps score, too. I have the same caddy every week--Rich Aune of New York. He does a great job.”

As is invariably the case in this intensely competitive business, Walker’s first tour victory last summer put her on a new plateau as far as confidence was concerned.

“You can’t believe how much it means to get that first tour victory,” she said. “You look at the people who have won tournaments, and you know they’re going to be tougher because they’ve been there.

“When you get that first win, you never forget it, and you never forget how you got it. When it gets tough toward the end of a tournament, you have something extra going for you.”

Although Walker has yet to win again, she has come so close so consistently that she says her self-assurance has grown by the week.

“I think I have a solid foundation now,” she said. “I’m having fun, and I’m making good golf swings. When you do that, good things happen.

“I don’t know if I’ve done enough yet to be included with the best. But I’m confident, and I don’t think my head has gotten too big.”