Okamoto’s Golf Game Draws a Big Crowd : LPGA: Japanese star is followed by a swarm of Japanese reporters.

Wherever Ayako Okamoto goes, members of the Japanese news media are sure to follow.

Having established herself as one of the world’s best female golfers, Okamoto, 39, is a national treasure in her native land. She is as big a name there as Jack Nicklaus has been all these years in the United States.

So, during the nine months Okamoto spends each year on the LPGA Tour--she plays on the Japanese tour during the winter--she always has a flock of Japanese writers and photographers to keep her company. The fans back home want to know every move their heroine makes.

Mitsutaka Sado, who works on a free-lance basis in New York for Chunichi, a newspaper in Nagoya, Japan, talked about life on the Okamoto beat at the Red Robin Kyocera Inamori tournament Thursday at StoneRidge.

“She’s a lady superstar, but she gets nervous with all the media following her,” Sado said. “She’s very shy and doesn’t like showing herself to the public.”

Nervous or not, Okamoto appreciates having the media around. Before teeing off Thursday, she sent a bottle of sake to her countrymen in the media tent.

Because the Masters tournament in Augusta, Ga., is also being held this weekend, the Japanese media delegation at StoneRidge is smaller than usual. The Masters took away 10 of the 17 writers and photographers who covered the Nabisco Dinah Shore in Rancho Mirage last week.

But there is still a sizable group covering Okamoto, and it’s a good bet to grow if she is at or near the top of the leader board after two rounds. Japanese media people have been known to fly here as late as Saturday from Los Angeles or New York, as was the case in 1988 when Okamoto won this tournament for the second consecutive time.

Michi Pitcock, nee Suzuki, a StoneRidge member who moved here from Japan in 1967, recalled helping a reporter make the 11th-hour jump from New York to San Diego two years ago. She works as a volunteer in the media tent.

“I made a hotel reservation for the gentleman,” Pitcock said. “He had to take off in such a hurry that he didn’t have time.

“I’m here to help the Japanese media in whatever way I can, like where the good restaurants are. Of course, if a man isn’t a rookie, he knows where to get good food.

“I enjoy this, because I get all the fresh news from Japan, and that’s a plus for me.”

Last year, the mid-tournament travel situation was reversed. Okamoto’s bid for a third consecutive victory here ended when she failed to make the cut. With her eliminated, several Japanese journalists fled to Augusta for the last two rounds of the Masters.

The Masters is so big that it always attracts foreign writers, and this year the Japanese media members have a brother act from their country to cover--Masashi and Naomithi Ozaki. Masashi is better known as Jumbo.

However, the odds against the Ozaki brothers are infinitely greater than those against Okamoto, who already has earned $94,447 this year by finishing second twice and sixth once in just four tournaments. She now ranks eighth on the all-time money list with winnings of $1,834,029.

There are only two other Japanese golfers on the American tour--Hiromi Kobayashi, a rookie, and Chihiro Nakajima, a second-year pro--and Nakajima is not playing here.

Kobayashi, 27, who has won six tournaments in Japan, doesn’t command the media attention that Okamoto does, but she almost kept pace with Okamoto in the opening round Thursday. She shot a 72, Okamoto a par 71.

Up to now, Kobayashi’s first venture on the American tour has been frustrating. In seven tournaments, she has finished no higher than 29th and earned only $5,372.

Lately, though, Kobayashi’s game has shown signs of a revival, and she expressed encouragement after Thursday’s round. Unlike Okamoto, she doesn’t speak English, so Pitcock served as her interpreter.

“I had a good feeling going around that maybe I’d finish one under or even par,” Kobayashi said through Pitcock. “I lost my confidence at one time, but I got it back in Phoenix two weeks ago (despite a 54th-place finish). I’m OK now. I feel great.”

Kobayashi gave much of the credit for her improved play to Okamoto.

“I was having trouble with my swing,” Kobayashi said. “Ayako pointed out what I was doing wrong, and I’m better now.”

As for the language barrier she faces, Kobayashi said, “I have problems, but I have a friend with me and she helps. After this tournament, we have three weeks off, and I plan to take English lessons.”

Okamoto feels that having Kobayashi on the tour works to her benefit as well.

“I miss Japan, but I’m fine now because another Japanese player has joined the tour,” Okamoto said. “It’s very difficult for her over here, so I try to help. If she asks me, I give advice.

“We go to dinner together once in a while, but I don’t want to bother her.”

Okamoto finds another antidote for her homesickness in the relative anonymity she enjoys in the United States. Even with media people trailing her at every turn, life for her here is far less hectic than it is back home. She can’t go anywhere in Japan without being besieged by autograph seekers.

“We have to do it (sign autographs) because the fans follow us,” Okamoto said. “The sponsors, everybody give to us, so we have to give back.

“If I’m in a restaurant, I don’t say no. I say, ‘Please, after I eat.’ One time, I had food halfway to my mouth when somebody asked for my autograph. After dinner, I have time.

“On the golf course, sometimes when I’m feeling good, I sign, but after I make a bogey, I don’t want to. I hope the people in the United States understand.”

Okamoto said that handling of the media in this country was far superior to that in Japan.

“We have a problem in Japan because there is no camera control,” she said. “A few people spoil it for others. We have to learn from other countries.”

Journalist Sado lived in Glendale for 3 1/2 years before moving to New York two years ago.

“I like New York better,” he said. “It’s an interesting city, with plays, music, opera, and nice clothes. My wife is very interested in fashion.

“San Diego is nice. It has very clean air, which is different from Los Angeles and New York.”

Another New York-based free-lance writer, Kaz Takahashi, who is covering the tournament for Tokyo Sports Press, disagreed with Sado on the merits of New York.

“New York is not the United States,” Takahashi said. “It’s a different country.”

Asked how he liked San Diego, Takahashi said, “It’s a beautiful city. I think it’s the most comfortable city in the United States.”

Takahashi covers boxing, too. His most recent non-golf assignment was the shocking fight in which Buster Douglas knocked out Mike Tyson in Tokyo.

“I covered Douglas’ camp before the fight,” Takahashi said. “I sent a report to Tokyo that he was in such great shape that he’d go 12 rounds, but nobody believed me. They cut my story, and used a very small space.

“I was clapping for Douglas all the time. I know Tyson very well, and he knows me, but he was so snobbish before that fight, and I didn’t like it.”

Many Japanese journalists double as writers and photographers. Two of them are Masaaki Nishimoto of Daily Sports in Kobe and Tsukiyama Yukio of Nikkan Sports in Tokyo.

“I’m the official photographer for the Japanese LPGA,” Nishimoto said. “I’m also a Golf Digest photographer. I write stories, too.

“Golf is very big in Japan. Many American-tour players are famous there. Nicklaus, Norman, Azinger, Watson, Trevino, Stadler, and women like Amy Alcott, Patty Rizzo, Cindy Rarick and Betsy King. Rizzo has had many, many winners in Japan.”

Of life in the United States, Nishimoto said, “I’m slowly catching on. I rent a car, and the steering wheel is on the left side and I drive on the right side of the road. That’s hard to get used to.

“The freeways are very good here, much wider than in Tokyo. There the freeways have only two or three lanes, and they’re not free. It costs about 10,000 yen to drive from Tokyo to Osaka, which isn’t very far. That’s about $66.”

Yukio attended summer school at Cal Berkeley in 1976, and calls San Francisco his favorite city.

“I’m going to San Francisco for two days next week,” he said. “Then I’m going to Boston for the marathon.”

All of the Japanese media people have some knowledge of English. To Yukio, though, it’s a struggle.

“I studied English six years, but not speaking it,” he said.

After nine-plus seasons on the LPGA Tour, Okamoto’s language troubles are minor. What gives her an occasional problem is her approach to golf, in which she graduated to professional status just a year and a half after taking her first lesson in December 1972.

“I was a softball pitcher,” she said. “A man told me to play golf. I asked, ‘What is golf?’ But I liked it, and I learned fast.

“What happened here last year was I felt inside pressure because I had won the two years before. I wasn’t ready to play. Now I feel comfortable, and my game is very consistent. Each hole is a happening.

“I can get too aggressive sometimes, too. My concentration can go fast if I’m too aggressive. I’m at the right level right now.”

Okamoto was given added inspiration to take into the tournament when she turned 39 Tuesday.

“I got these big flowers from Japan,” she said. “There were 39 roses from my family, plus cards. It made me feel like home.”