LPGA Tournament at Rancho Park : Lopez Plays Like the $2-Million Woman

Nancy Lopez, so famous at Rancho Park there is a “Ms. Lopez” burger (chili and onions) on the menu at the course coffee shop, could not have ordered a better Sunday.

In a tournament she nearly didn’t play, Lopez defeated Marta Figueras-Dotti on the second playoff hole to win the Ai Star Centinela Hospital event at Rancho Park.

If her caddy, Dee Darden, hadn’t talked Lopez into playing, Lopez would not be what she is today.

And what is that?

“A 2-million-dollar woman,” Lopez said.

On the 56th hole of the 54-hole tournament, Lopez rolled in a 2 1/2-foot putt to become the fourth player in Ladies Professional Golf Assn. history to reach $2 million in career earnings.

First-place was worth $60,000 to Lopez, who has won $2.044 million in her 12-year career.

She got there by taking advantage of a rare putting mistake by Figueras-Dotti on the 14th, the second playoff hole.

Lopez won her last playoff, the seventh in her career, in 1985 over Lori Garbacz, so she knew how to play one.

“You just have to wait and see who is going to make the mistake, really,” Lopez said.

Figueras-Dotti, the former USC All-American looking for her first LPGA victory in her first LPGA playoff, saw her four-foot par putt miss instead.

“I moved my head,” Figueras-Dotti said. “I wasn’t doubting myself or anything like that. I just moved over it.”

All Lopez had to do was guide her short putt home and win for the third time at Rancho Park, where in 1978 and 1979 she won the Sunstar.

It was a short uphill putt on a long, uphill day for Lopez, who began the final round four shots behind leader Amy Alcott, but got herself into a playoff with a 67.

Figueras-Dotti won $37,000 for second place after her final round of 70, and Colleen Walker was third with a 67. Alcott, needing a birdie to force a three-way playoff, took herself out of contention when she bogeyed the 16th after she drove behind some trees.

Alcott finished with a 73 and slipped into a tie for fourth with Kim Shipman, who finished with a 69.

Juli Inkster and Sherri Turner were close until they dropped out on the back nine, which left the tournament a four-player race between Alcott, Walker, Figueras-Dotti and Lopez.

After bogeying the first hole, Walker had six birdies the rest of the way, but didn’t think she had quite enough to win. When it wasn’t, Walker said she was taking the week off and going home to Florida to swim.

Lopez decided to take the plunge right after she eagled the 435-yard second hole with a 9-iron from 35 feet. In one swing, she had gone from 1-under to 3-under and Lopez knew her caddy was right when he persuaded her to play.

“I had 65 in my mind this morning,” she said. “I thought that’s what it would take to win. Then, when I made the eagle, that was a good solid start right off the bat.”

Also off the bat, Lopez’s husband, Ray Knight, had two runs batted in Sunday for the Detroit Tigers.

Actually, the Lopez-Knight union has had a pretty good run of luck recently. She decided to play at Rancho Park, and he was traded during the off-season from the Baltimore Orioles, who are 0-12 this season.

Lopez’s luck was more current. She sank a 20-footer for a birdie on No. 5 and then moved into the lead with birdies on 11 and 12. Lopez hit an 8-iron onto the fringe at 11 and sank a 25-footer. Then on 12, she dropped a 4-iron 10 feet from the cup and made the putt.

There weren’t any more birdies in Lopez’s golf bag, but Figueras-Dotti had one more. Playing several groups behind Lopez, Figueras-Dotti matched her at 6-under with an 8-foot birdie putt on 16. Both Lopez and Figueras-Dotti finished with a 210 total for three rounds.

Lopez waited nearly an hour as the leader in the clubhouse. She waited for a playoff, which began with both players getting par on 18, the first playoff hole.

Figueras-Dotti barely missed a 20-footer that would have won it.

“I guess I didn’t hit it hard enough,” she said.

They moved to 14 where Figueras-Dotti drove to the right rough and the ball landed in a clump of clover, 166 yards from the pin. She hit a 5-iron onto the green 40 feet from the hole.

Lopez drove the middle of the fairway, but she wasn’t any closer than Figueras-Dotti with her approach shot to the green.

First to putt, Figueras-Dotti ran the ball four feet past the hole, which gave left her an uphill putt. Lopez also knocked the ball past the hole, but only 2 1/2 feet.

“I was trying to make it, but I was also trying to make it close,” Lopez said. “I’ve been there before. I knew she didn’t have an easy putt.”

It turned out to be extremely difficult.

“I finished second, so I can’t be unhappy about that, but when you’re so close and want it so badly, it’s just unfortunate,” Figueras-Dotti said. “I thought I was going to do it this time.

“But Nancy Lopez is the best player around here,” she said. “I’d rather lose to Nancy Lopez than to anybody else.”

So she got her wish. If Erinn Lopez, age 2, had her wish, mother wouldn’t have played the tournament. When Lopez spoke to Erinn on the telephone Saturday night, Erinn was crying.

“I thought that if I was going to be away from her, I would win the tournament for her,” Lopez said. “I was really motivated to play. Now, I don’t feel so badly about leaving her.”

After the tournament, there was a Lopez clan meeting in the Rancho Park coffee shop. Lopez’s father, Domingo, sister Delma, and other family members and friends celebrated her victory with Ms. Lopez burgers all around.