Rittenhouse Not Taking Lead for Granted : Dinah Shore golf: Little-known player shoots 67 for two-stroke advantage after 18 holes.

Lenore Rittenhouse isn’t about to let a little thing such as leading the Nabisco Dinah Shore ruin her weekend.

Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley, Juli Inkster and Betsy King can worry about winning major golf championships. Lenore Rittenhouse is in her comfort zone around the cut line.

The 34-year-old player from Honolulu even refuses to be fooled by the five-under-par 67 she shot Thursday on a Mission Hills Country Club course that was made more difficult because of swirling winds. She knows she’s the same player who once shot a 29 on the front nine and a 39 on the back nine in San Diego. She knows she’s the same player who was chunking chip shots only a week ago. And she knows she’s the same player who has made the cut only once in six years here.

“Check my record out,” she challenged. “I don’t usually play well here.”

According to her record, Rittenhouse doesn’t “usually” play well anywhere. She has one victory in 10 years on the LPGA Tour and misses her fair share of cuts.

“I was just lucky today,” Rittenhouse said after her round, which included only 25 putts, a chip-in birdie at the 15th hole and a 60-foot birdie putt on the final hole.

The 67 left her with a two-stroke lead over King and a three-stroke margin over defending champion Inkster and Cindy Hill.

Beth Daniel, Amy Benz, Dottie Mochrie, Elaine Crosby and Missy Berteotti were next at 71.

Rittenhouse was willing to admit that luck played a part in her round, but as she sees it, Mission Hills owes her something for all the years it has treated her rudely. Now, at least she can make plans to be around for the weekend.

Although she isn’t thinking in terms of winning the tournament, Rittenhouse believes that the mental part of her game would finally allow her to relax if she is still in contention on the last day.

“I think I proved that to myself at the end of last year when I played in the last group (in San Jose) with Beth Daniel and Pat Bradley,” Rittenhouse said. “I was a little nervous, but I shot a 73. Those players were big stars, and it took me a long time to realize that I could play with them.”

It hasn’t always been that way for Rittenhouse. She was once an overachiever who progressed from Point A to Point B ahead of schedule. She went from amateur golf to the mini-tours to the qualifying school to the LPGA Tour without taking a deep breath.

A graduate of the University of Hawaii in 1978, she could have made her mark in business or education, but was having too much success playing golf.

After joining the LPGA Tour in 1980, she won her first tournament in 1983 when she took the United Virginia Bank tournament.

Being a winner, however, made it difficult to accept missing cuts, and her frustration became almost unbearable.

Things got so bad three years ago that Rittenhouse was ready to quit. She had played four years in a row without cracking a top 20 earnings list.

“I took a real job working as a sales rep for about two months,” she said. “I mean I was out pounding pavements in the real world. That’s when I started to realize that golf wasn’t such a bad game after all.”

That was the beginning of her second attempt at golf. Now she’s beginning to make some real progress. Her top finish two years ago was an 11th place. Last year, she had two top-10 finishes in the final three weeks of the season. And now, she’s the first-round leader of the Dinah Shore.

“I’m not ready to get carried away yet,” Rittenhouse said, mindful of her history. “Besides, all I have to do is look at my round and realize it wasn’t one of those rounds that could have been real low. But that’s the way golf is. Some days you hit it well and can’t score, other days you shank it around and wind up with a low number.”

After making the turn in 35, Rittenhouse made birdies at the 12th and 13th holes to move take the lead at three under par.

Then she chipped in for a birdie from 15 feet at the 15th, saved a couple of pars with good chips on the next two holes and closed her round with a 60-foot birdie putt.

“That last one was a definite surprise,” Rittenhouse said. “To get a birdie on that hole, in that wind, when I had to hit three woods just to reach the green . . . That’s when you know things are going right for you.”

LPGA Notes

Defending champion Juli Inkster was surprised by how well she played, considering that she hadn’t played a competitive round for six months. “I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “I had been hitting the ball well on the driving range, but it’s a lot different when you come out and try to hit the same shots in a major championship.” Inkster, who took the time off while having a baby, said she doesn’t feel any pressure, because she doesn’t expect to win. . . . Nancy Lopez is in danger of missing the cut after opening with an 80. . . . Ayako Okamoto had a hole in one, using a 4-iron at the 167-yard 17th hole.

The winner of this week’s tournament will be eligible for a $1-million bonus. To win that amount, however, a player must also win the three other major events on the LPGA Tour--the U.S. Open, the LPGA Championship and the Du Maurier Ltd. tournament.

SENIOR GOLF: Rain forces postponement of the first round of the Tradition tournament at Scottsdale, Ariz., and delays the debut of Jack Nicklaus for at least another 24 hours. C11

ROUTE 66: P.J. Horgan III, a former football player, shot a six-under-par 66 to take the first-round lead in a tournament at the Woodlands, Tex. C11