GOLF LPGA AT POWAY : Brown Falters to Open Door for Monaghan

As Nancy Brown started play Sunday, she led the Red Robin Kyocera Inamori golf tournament after three rounds for the second consecutive year. She finished play still looking for her first LPGA victory after shooting a five-over-par 76 and opening the way for Kris Monaghan to win her first LPGA tournament.

Monaghan, 29, shot an eight-under 276 to win $45,000. She had five birdies and shot 31 on the front nine, then added two birdies on the back nine to finish with a four-under 67.

Cathy Gerring--who also has never won an LPGA tournament--was two strokes back at 278 and earned $27,750. Rosie Jones and Ayako Okamoto were three back and won $18,000 each.

Brown finished in a tie for seventh at three-under 281. Last year, she had a two-stroke lead after three rounds and shot a seven-over 78 to fall into a tie for 17th.

She started Sunday eight under but was taken off the leader board after a front nine score of 42 that included three bogeys and double-bogeys on the eighth and ninth holes.

She said she tried to steer the ball with a nine-iron on her drive to the eighth hole and got a bad lie.

“I was scared on nine,” she said. “I thought, ‘Great, what am I going to do today?’ ”

What she was going to do was get two birdies on the back side but it was too late. At that point, what mattered was what Monaghan was going to do. She started the day tied with Gerring at four-under, but birdied the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth and 11th holes to get to nine-under. She was interrupted briefly with a bogey on 13, but birdied 15 to put her back at nine-under. She bogeyed 18, but, by that time, it didn’t matter.

The two strokes she will remember came on the 11th and 15th holes.

On 11, she made a 25-foot putt that snaked up the crest for birdie.

“When that went in, I was feeling a little unconscious,” she said.

But it was nothing compared to her birdie on 15, which came when she made a 30-foot shot by chipping out of the right front bunker.

“That’s the kind of shot that you dream about to win a tourney,” she said.

She shot a one-over 72 Thursday but came back with a 67 Friday. She said she figured her most difficult task would be following Friday’s round. She overcame that challenge with a 70 Saturday, setting the stage for Sunday.

“I tried to stay patient and consistent today,” she said. “Two big words that are almost new to my vocabulary.”

Monaghan, in her sixth year on the tour, had missed the cut in four of five tournaments this year and tied for 39th in the Desert Inn LPGA Invitational March 11 in Las Vegas. Her career best finish was fourth in the Safeco tournament in Seattle.

She made more money Sunday than she ever has in a year. Previously, her career-best year was 1987, when she earned $21,937.

She had earned just $2,052 this year on the tour. The $45,000 winner’s check will help.

“You have no idea how important that is,” she said. “I’ve struggled with money ever since I’ve been out here. This makes my whole career. Winning is what it is all about, but the money is nice, too.

“Money has always been a problem--I’ve never had very much of it. It’s been a concern, but I’ve tried not to dwell on it. I’m not going to tell you how small my bank account is.”

She stays in private housing so she can save money when she is on tour. She doesn’t insist on high-priced, professional caddies. This weekend, her caddie was Robert Delgado, a senior on the San Diego State golf team. She walked into the caddie shack one day earlier this week, said she didn’t want a tour caddie, and Delgado happened to be standing there.

“The thing that amazed me about her every day,” Delgado said, “was that nothing mattered to her--who she was playing with, what she was wearing, what balls she was using. There were no superstitions.”

Delgado wasn’t the only one impressed with Monaghan. Okamoto, who played in Monaghan’s threesome, hugged her when they finished. Jones hung around the 18th green long enough to congratulate Monaghan as well. Jones and Monaghan are both from Albuquerque, N.M., and played junior golf against each other.

“I’m really proud of Kris,” Jones said. “What I know of Kris and what she has inside of her, I think this is just the beginning.