Ayako Okamoto Doesn’t Expect to Win Third Straight San Diego Tournament

Ayako Okamoto is not optimistic about her chances of winning her third consecutive Red Robin Kyocera Inamori golf tournament, which starts today at StoneRidge Country Club.

“I’m not ready yet,” Okamoto said Wednesday. “Last year was the best time of my life. I never won before that early. Last year was a special year. This year is a normal year. It takes time for me.”

Okamoto, 38, of Hiroshima, won a tournament last year as early as February--the Orient Leasing Hawaiian Open. She finished the season with three victories and earned $300,206, which gave her sixth place on the LPGA tour despite playing in the fewest events of anyone in the top 10.

Even without such a fast start, Okamoto was the tour’s leading money winner in 1987, earning $466,034 in a year that included four victories. All told, she has made $1,546,783 in eight-plus seasons, good for 10th place on the all-time list.

Why, then, does Okamoto doubt her chances to win her third consecutive San Diego tournament?

She pointed to her head and her heart, then said, “I just haven’t been playing that well.”

This season, Okamoto is in 52nd place with winnings of only $12,946, and has finished no higher than a tie for 18th. She failed to make the cut in the Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament last week at Rancho Mirage.

“Everything (is going) slow for me right now,” she said.

Only three of this season’s top 10 money-winners will play here. They are Juli Inkster of Los Altos, Calif., winner of the Dinah Shore, who ranks fifth; Allison Finney of Palm Desert, winner of the Turquoise tournament in Phoenix, who ranks seventh, and Sherri Turner of Sugar Land, Tex., winner of the Orix Hawaiian Open, who ranks ninth.