LPGA Notebook : ‘La Mode Corner’ Takes Toll on Players

As each group of golfers came to the 13th hole Sunday at Los Coyotes Country Club, they were confronted by a group protesting a labor disagreement with the makers of La Mode sportswear.

About 30 protesters, members and supporters of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, yelled and chanted from a street behind the hole, not on the course, so they couldn’t be removed. The union is asking the LPGA to boycott the sportswear company.

Bill Blue, the LPGA commissioner, called it “a distraction to the tournament.”

“We have a contract with La Mode,” he said. “We are a customer of theirs. . . . Under the circumstances, our players are doing very well.”

Some of the players held a different view of the situation.

Alice Ritzman, who finished third, called the 13th hole “La Mode Corner,” and was upset after she three-putted for a bogey on the hole.

When asked if it was hard to concentrate at the hole, Pamela Wright said, “Oh sure. We had chances there and missed, and that had to have something to do with it.”

Blue said the tour has had La Mode protesters at two other tournaments this season. The protesters also were chanting that they would be in San Jose, the tour’s next stop.

Even in a dark moment of her round Sunday, Myra Blackwelder still found time to brighten someone’s day.

After missing a short par putt, she walked off the 16th green only to be confronted by a crying toddler with his father.

Blackwelder, a mother of two preschool children who travel with her on tour, took about three steps by the crying child, then stopped.

She turned, walked back and gave the child the ball.

A moment later, the crying stopped and Blackwelder moved on.

“Works every time,” she said.

Fog set in on Los Coyotes Sunday morning, delaying the start of play for almost three hours.

The first twosome, scheduled to tee off at 8:15 a.m., were delayed until 11:12.

The shot of the day came from Alice Ritzman on the par-five, 474-yard ninth hole. She was 103 yards from the pin, in the tree line on the right, just hoping to get the ball close.

She hit a nine iron that landed about three feet short of the pin and rolled in for an eagle.

“When it went in, I thought this might be my day because that’s the kind of thing that happens when you win tournaments,” Ritzman said. “But not this time.”