LPGA Tournament at Poway : With Okamoto Out, Brown, Davies Tie for Lead

There are many contenders at the halfway point of the LPGA tour’s Red Robin Kyocera Inamori tournament at StoneRidge, but defending champion Ayako Okamoto isn’t one of them.

In fact, Okamoto is no longer in the tournament. After winning here twice in a row, the Japanese veteran bowed out Friday when she added a nine-over-par 80 to her first-round 75 and missed the cut by eight strokes.

So while Nancy Brown and Laura Davies moved into a tie for the lead with 36-hole scores of 136, Okamoto bemoaned the extension of a slump that has plagued her all season.

“It’s really, really frustrating,” Okamoto said. “I felt frustrated the whole day, all week, every day, every shot.”

Okamoto led the tour in 1987 by earning $466,034 and finished sixth last year with $300,206, but has won only $12,946 in 1989. This is the second consecutive week she has failed to make the cut.

Both Brown and Davies, who had trailed by one stroke with 69s after the first round, shot 67s Friday. Martha Nause’s 68 left her a stroke behind at 137, and Dale Eggeling and Cindy Rarick dropped from a tie for the lead to a tie for fourth with Sue Tonkin at 138.

Deedee Lasker, the other first-round leader, shot a 74 and skidded to a tie for 18th at 142.

Sue Thomas made the tournament’s first hole in one on the 16th.