Golf : Sherri Turner Says She Owes Part of Her Success to Star System

Sherri Turner gives herself a star when she does well, just as her grade school teachers gave her for correctly solving math problems.

And when Turner does real well, as she has this season, those little stars add up to a big pot of gold.

So when Turner, the leading money winner on the Ladies Professional Golf Assn. tour this season, says she owes it all to the stars, she’s talking about the kind you buy in the store.

“I know this sounds stupid, but before I started using this star system this year I had not won a tournament on the tour,” said Turner, who has won $332,859. “Last year, I finished 20th on the money list and even though I had several opportunities to win, I just couldn’t find the key.”

Turner, in her fifth year on the tour, says she became so obsessed with winning that she began to think she just wasn’t capable of it.

“I’d be playing in a tournament, and as soon as I knew I couldn’t win I wanted to give up, and then I would drop to finish fourth or fifth, rather than second or third,” Turner said.

“My roommate on the tour (Melissa Whitmire) suggested we come up with a system to help me focus on the good things that I do, rather than on the negative.

“So we devised this game that I started playing on the golf course. If I birdie a hole, I put a red or gold star next to that hole on my pin sheet. If I don’t play a hole well, but have a positive attitude, I don’t put any star. And a bad attitude on a hole gets a green star. Those I try to stay away from. “

When Turner prepares to play a new hole, she pulls out her pin sheet to check the flag location. She says that seeing the maze of good stars helps her to focus on what she has done well, rather than on what she has done poorly.

And that, she says, was what it took for her to finally win her first LPGA tournament, in May, when she edged Amy Alcott by a stroke in the LPGA Championship at Kings Island, Ohio. She added her second victory the next week in the Corning Tournament at New York.

“I’m still using the star system,” Turner said. “And I don’t think my game is any different than it was when I didn’t win. But my attitude is more positive. Now, every week, I feel I have a chance to win. Before, I just thought I could win. There’s a big difference in thinking you can win and knowing you can win--entirely different.”

There’s also a big difference in the money. In her first year on the tour, 1984, Turner got off to a fast start by finishing second in her first tournament, and winning $54,644. She made $56,000 each of the next two years, then doubled that amount, earning $118,708 last season. And this season, she has more than doubled that.

“I can’t really comprehend how much money $332,000 really is,” Turner said. “When I was growing up, my parents made a modest living. I had everything I needed, but it wasn’t extravagant. I hope I never lose sight of the values I have. I hope I keep it all in perspective.”

Turner, 31, grew up in Greenville, S.C. and graduated from Furman University in 1979. It took her five attempts to qualify for the tour, and five seasons to win her first tournament. It would seem that Turner will find a way to keep it all in perspective.

Add Turner: Turner, along with the majority of the leading LPGA money winners, are playing in the Santa Barbara Open this weekend at both the Sandpiper Golf Course in Goleta and the La Purisima Course in Lompoc--where the final round will be played today.

The U.S. portion of the LPGA season will end next weekend at the San Jose Tournament, after which the top 45 money leaders will play in the Japan Tournament in Tokyo Nov. 4-6--the season’s last official tour event to count for player-of-the-year honors and money leaders.

The Santa Barbara Open and San Jose event each carry a total purse of $300,000, with the winner receiving $45,000.

The top five money leaders going into today’s final round are Turner at $332,859; Nancy Lopez at $317,391; Colleen Walker at $300,381; Amy Alcott at $287,570 and Ayako Okamoto at $274,809.

Okamoto, of Japan, last season’s leading money winner and LPGA player of the year, has become more comfortable with speaking English, and no longer relies on a translator in interviews. In the Nestle World Championship tournament last month at Lake Lanier Islands, Ga., an animated Okamoto went into the press tent every day and conducted her own interviews. She says she is glad to speak English because it allows her to express her feelings better.

Okamoto also wants Japanese children to learn English. She says one of her goals is to open a golf school in the United States, where children from Japan will come to learn English along with golf.

Okamoto, who returns to Japan in the off-season, also keeps homes in Los Angeles, Palm Springs and Florida.

Golf Notes

Jan Stephenson, who is 10th on the LPGA money list at $220,492, has 16 victories in 15 years on the tour, but is winless this year. Even so, Stephenson, who is the defending champion of both the Santa Barbara Open and the San Jose Tournament, said she is playing the best golf of her life. . . . Former Dodger Don Newcombe is the chairman of Monday’s golf tournament at the Via Verde Country Club in San Dimas, a benefit for the Pasadena Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency. For information call (818) 795-9127. . . . Moreno Valley Ranch Golf Club, a public course in Moreno Valley, Calif., about 60 miles east of Los Angeles and off Highway 60, will open Oct. 1. The 27-hole course, designed by Pete Dye, also has a lighted practice range.

Young Dave Stockton, son of former PGA champion Dave Stockton, is playing on the USC golf team. . . . Chi Chi Rodriguez is scheduled to play at the Downey Optimist Club-Toyota tournament on Oct. 31. The tournament benefits junior golf and the Optimist Boys Home of Los Angeles. . . . Millie Stanley of Escondido set a state record when she won her third straight California senior women’s title at Monterey last month.