GOLF / LPGA AT POWAY : Brown Shoots 69, Leads by a Stroke

Then and now:

A golfer is on the brink of winning her first LPGA tournament. She is alone in first place after three rounds, but collapses on the final day and falls into a tie for 17th. One year later, the golfer returns to same course. She is on the brink of winning her first LPGA tournament. She is alone in first place after three rounds. And it’s the final day.

Welcome to StoneRidge Country Club in Poway, and meet Nancy Brown. She is that golfer in the wonderful, awful position of leading the Red Robin Kyocera Inamori tournament. She shot a two-under-par 69 Saturday and is at eight-under 205 after three rounds.

Missie McGeorge is one stroke back at 206. Cathy Gerring and Kris Monaghan are tied for third, four strokes back at 209.

None of the four leaders have won an LPGA tournament before, but it doesn’t seem to matter. People are wondering one thing:

What is Brown thinking?

Brown smiles, jokes and answers the question. She knows people will be watching her today. No, she didn’t spend much time looking at the leader board Saturday.

But she remembers last year when she was breezing along with a seven-under 206, then went out on that fateful Sunday and shot a 78.

Saturday, she birdied the 17th--the sixth time in the seven times she has played it--and that put her eight under.

What was Brown thinking?

“I had a birdie on 17, so I wasn’t seven-under (like last year),” she said before anyone could ask her a question. “I just want you to know that.”

Brown took the lead from Lenore Rittenhouse on Friday when Rittenhouse went from six under to par. She held it Saturday with three birdies--on the fifth, ninth and 17th holes.

She missed only two greens, the third and fifth. Her birdie on the par-five 17th came on a 10-foot putt after she put her second shot in the bunker.

McGeorge was her biggest challenger all day, although Patti Rizzo came within two strokes by going five under before two bogeys in the last four holes pushed her back into a tie for fifth at 210. It was Rizzo who overtook Brown in the final round last year at StoneRidge.

“She’s going to be very nervous,” Rizzo said. “I could make a prediction, but I won’t--I’ll save it for (today). If she can keep it going, it might be her turn.”

At least Brown was swinging better than she was in Gerring’s dream Friday night. Gerring, who shot a 67 to tie Rosie Jones for the best round Saturday, said she dreamed Brown hit her ball inside of a house and couldn’t get it out. In this dream, Gerring walked over and asked Brown, “Is this what happened to you last year, too?”

“It was really, really strange,” Gerring said. “I don’t normally remember dreams, but for some reason, I remember that.”

Gerring started the day even and had five birdies, three on the back nine.

McGeorge started the day at four under and had two bogeys in her first five holes before collecting five birdies over the last 13. She birdied 15 with a 25-foot putt and 18 with a 15-foot putt to stay one stroke behind Brown.

LPGA Notes

Ayako Okamoto, who won the tournament in 1987 and 1988, is tied for fifth at 210, three under. . . . Patty Sheehan, who has won the tournament three times, is tied for 32nd at 217. . . . Betsy King, winner of the Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament last weekend, double-bogeyed No. 1 and wasn’t able to get lower than three under. She finished two under, tied for ninth at 211.