Golf : LPGA Returns to Los Coyotes After 18 Years

After an absence of three years from Orange County and 18 years from Los Coyotes Country Club in Buena Park, the Ladies PGA will return there next week for the inaugural Nippon Travel-MBS tournament, a $300,000 event that will benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Childhelp U.S.A. The 72-hole event starts Sept. 21.

Nancy Lopez, this season’s second-leading money winner and last year’s LPGA player of the year, has entered the tournament in her continuing quest of a fourth Vare Trophy, which is awarded annually to the player with the lowest scoring average for the year.

“I would like to finish first on the money list but my goal always is to win the Vare Trophy for scoring average,” said Lopez, who won the award in 1978, 1979 and 1985, when she set a record average of 70.73 strokes a round.

Lopez is the 1989 leader with a 70.53 average, just ahead of Betsy King, 70.54, and Beth Daniel, 70.59.

Last year, although Lopez was player of the year and Sherri Turner was top money-winner, the Vare Trophy was won by Colleen Walker with a 71.26 average.

King, the leading money-winner this year with an LPGA-record $631,427 and six tournament victories, is still uncommitted about playing in the Los Coyotes event.

Amy Alcott, who won the Lee Hammil junior championship at Los Coyotes in 1970, when she was 14, is another entrant with a specific goal in mind.

Alcott, who won her 28th LPGA tournament last July in Boston when she shot four consecutive rounds of 68, needs only two more to become the 12th inductee into the LPGA Hall of Fame. Lopez was the last inductee, in 1987.

Membership in the Hall of Fame is restricted to players who have 30 or more victories, including at least two of the women’s majors. Four of Alcott’s 28 victories have been in majors--the 1980 U.S. Women’s Open, 1983 and 1988 Dinah Shore, and the 1979 du Maurier in Canada.

Other prominent entries include Daniel, who has won two of the last three women’s tournaments; Pat Bradley, winner of the A1 Star/Centinela Hospital tournament last April at Rancho Park; Hollis Stacy, a three-time U.S. Women’s Open champion; and Sandra Haynie, a Hall of Fame member. Also entered are all seven first-time winners this season--Tammie Green, Lori Garbacz, Allison Finney, Dottie Mochrie, Robin Hood and Tina Barrett.

The tournament, which will pay $45,000 to the winner, will be preceded by two pro-ams. The first, on Monday, Sept. 18, will be for women only. The second, on Tuesday, will be a celebrity event featuring such entertainment personalities as James Garner, Cheryl Ladd, Dick Martin, Claude Akins and Mac Davis. The only previous LPGA tournament held at Los Coyotes was in 1971 and was won by Kathy Whitworth, a Hall of Fame member whose 88 victories is the all-time record. Whitworth also is entered in this year’s event.

The last time an Orange County course played host to the women professionals was 1986 when Mary Beth Zimmerman squeezed out a victory over Pat Bradley and Laura Baugh in the Uniden Invitational at Mesa Verde CC in Costa Mesa.

Golf Notes

Relax, Orville Moody fans. The long putter, which has helped make Moody a big winner on the senior tour, has been officially accepted by the U.S. Golf Assn. after rumors had circulated that it would be barred as “detrimental to the game of golf.” . . . The Vietnam Veterans Aid Foundation will hold a celebrity tournament Sept. 18 at Calabasas CC. . . . Armando Gil and Augustine Silveya of San Diego will defend their SoCal PGA two-man better ball championship in the 10th annual tournament Thursday and Friday at the La Quinta Hotel’s mountain course.

Millie Stanley’s victory in the Los Angeles City Senior Women’s tournament on the Balboa and Encino courses was her seventh, a record in the 19-year-old event. It was also the eighth victory in nine tournaments this summer for the Wilshire CC member. Her only loss was to Marie Kuhn of North Hollywood in the SoCal Senior Women’s tournament, and it was Kuhn who Stanley had to beat, 76-78--154 to 79-78--157 to win the L.A. title. Stanley, 60, is a native of Hawaii who played her first tournament in 1950 when working for the Navy. It was an all-service event held in Japan and she was the only woman player. . . . Four juniors have been awarded scholarships from the Bill Bryant Memorial Junior Golf Foundation: Kevin Claborn of Brea, attending UC Santa Barbara; Carrie Leary of Newhall and Wendy Noose of Monterey Park, both at UCLA; and Michael Bestor of Laguna Niguel, at Arizona. . . . Frank Rodia, professional at Torrey Pines GC in San Diego from 1957 until he retired in 1970, died recently at his home in Santa Rosa. Rodia, 86, had been a member of the PGA for 63 years.

Michael Brannan, the golf equipment salesman from Trumbull, Conn., who reached the semifinals of the U.S. Amateur two weeks ago, is the same Mike Brannan who was a 17-year-old high school student from Salinas when he defeated Dick Runkle of Los Angeles on the 37th hole in winning the 1973 California Amateur at Pebble Beach. . . . Qualifying rounds to join the 50-and-over PGA Senior Tour will be played Oct. 24-26 at Rancho California CC in Murrieta. Senior pros will have a tuneup opportunity when the Golden State Tour plays the course Sept. 18, and again Oct. 19-20. . . . Billy Casper, two-time U.S. Open champion, will hold his 15th annual fund-raising tournament for the Mormon Church and Brigham Young University Oct. 9, at Anaheim Hills GC. Tournament chairman Dean Alger reports that the entry fee is $125 for the tournament-clinic. . . . Joe Thomas shot a net 70 in winning the championship flight in the Omega Psi Phi scholarship tournament at Montebello. He finished two shots ahead of Aki Amaya. Former pitcher Jim (Mudcat) Grant finished tied for fifth with Winston Doby in the A flight, five shots behind winner Jack Shelton. The event raised $4,000 for scholarships.