Dinah Shore Golf Tournament : A Five-Shot Lead Is a Problem for Inkster

Juli Inkster has a peculiar problem that others would like to share with her.

She has a five-stroke lead going into today’s final round of the $500,000 LPGA Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament.

She has led since the first round when she shot a 66.

She could be the first wire-to-wire winner here since Sandra Palmer in 1975.

These are problems?

It’s just a matter of perspective, and when it was suggested to Inkster that she’s in charge of the tournament, she said:

“That’s the whole problem. It’s my tournament to win, or lose. Everybody will be shooting at me and I have no one to shoot at.”

She did concede however that it’s easier to play with a five-shot lead than not to have it. Inkster had a four-shot lead over Beth Daniel after 36 holes, and she improved on it despite a one-over-par round of 73 Saturday at the Mission Hills Country Club for a 54-hole total of 208.

Daniel, suffering from a viral infection, faltered on the 17th and 18th holes with a bogey and double bogey, respectively. So she’s now seven strokes behind Inkster.

JoAnne Carner, Jody Rosenthal and Lynn Adams are the closest to Inkster, but they are at 213.

Inkster played steadily, if not spectacularly Saturday on a day when the heat subsided a few degrees to the high 80s, but the wind came up to harass the field at times.

As it turned out, Inkster said that the turning point of her round was a bogey at the par-four, 406-yard third hole. She sank a 30-foot putt to avert a double bogey.

Inkster got her only birdie on the par-four, 390-yard 16th hole when her seven-iron approach shot stopped just six inches from the pin.

She missed the green and made a bogey at the par-three, 171-yard 17th hole, but almost made up for it on the par-five 526-yard 18th. However, her 40-foot birdie putt just missed.

Inkster, who won this tournament in 1984, was asked to recall when she ever had such a commanding lead in a tournament after 54 holes?

“I think it was the McDonald’s tournament in 1986, when I had a six-to-seven-shot lead,” she said. “It’s hard to play that way, but I still won by four or five strokes.”

Inkster repeatedly said in her post-round interview that she has to play her own game today.

“That means no scoreboard watching. That’s out,” she said.

Inkster said she played tentatively at the start of Saturday’s round because she didn’t want to make a major mistake.

“I’m not going for the middle of the green (tomorrow). I’m going for the pin because I’m an aggressive player,” she said.

She also said that she has been playing mind games during the tournament.

“The plan has been to hit 15 greens a round,” Inkster said. “So far that has been the average.”

Carner, who will be 50 years old Tuesday and is already a member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, is one of three in second place.

Carner recorded her third consecutive round of 71 Saturday and said it could have been even better if she hadn’t squandered so many birdie opportunities.

“I hit 18 greens but I never got a smooth putting stroke,” she said.

Carner had a remarkably consistent round, making a birdie at the par-four, 351-yard first hole and then 17 straight pars.

“That’s unusual for me,” she said. “I’ve always been a birdie-bogey player.

Carner, who has 42 career victories but hasn’t won on the tour since 1985, is aware, of course, that she’ll have to make more birdies than bogeys to catch Inkster.

Asked if any of her wins have come from a five-stroke deficit on the final day, Carner paused, then said, “I imagine that I have done that.”

Carner won the U.S Open women’s championship in 1971 and 1976, but she hasn’t won here in her 19-year career.

Asked what a win here would mean to her, Carner said: “That would be the greatest thrill of all to win this one.”

She said the closest she came to winning the Dinah Shore was chasing Mickey Wright in the early 1970s and finishing second as far as she can recollect.

(It was actually in 1977 when she finished in a tie for second behind Kathy Whitworth).

Carner is one of the oldest regulars on the tour and, when asked if she thought she would be playing when she was 50 earlier in her career, she smiled and said:

“Way back then I thought 50 was ancient. Right now I don’t think it’s too old.”