Brown’s Collapse at Poway Is a Painful Rerun

“It wasn’t real fun,” said Nancy Brown, and that was the understatement of the week.

Brown’s rerun of her last-round collapse of a year ago was almost as agonizing to those who witnessed it at StoneRidge Sunday as it was to her. Chances are that when it was over, many folks in the gallery felt like sending her sympathy cards.

As determined as Brown was to hang on this time in the Red Robin Kyocera Inamori tournament and finally get her first LPGA Tour victory, it was inevitable that she would be haunted by what happened last year. After all, she had been reminded of her 1989 debacle in the newspapers all week.

“How could I not be aware of it?” Brown said. “I know I’m going to read about it again tomorrow, but I don’t blame you guys. It’s a good story, and if I was writing, I’d do the same thing.”

Still, Brown, who will be 29 April 26, insisted that she had approached the fateful final 18 with a positive attitude.

“I felt really good when I started out today,” she said. “I wasn’t afraid I was going to lose. Even when I made a couple of bogeys (on the second and third holes), I wasn’t all that worried, because I had bogeyed those holes before.”

Then came another bogey on No. 6 and successive double bogeys on 8 and 9, and by that time Brown knew she was in trouble. In just nine holes, she had careened from eight under par to one under and was seven strokes behind instead of one ahead.

“I felt out of it after my first double bogey,” she said.

To Brown’s credit, though, she pulled herself together on the back nine, and that was where this year’s disaster differed from that of 1989. She shot a two-under-par 34--for a round of 76--and finished in a tie for seventh at 281, three under. A year ago, she plummeted into a tie for 17th at 284.

“I’m really proud of myself for coming back on the back nine,” Brown said. “After those double bogeys on 8 and 9, I would like to have just walked into the locker room and hung it up.”

One thing that helped pull Brown out of her funk was the “misery-loves-company” factor. Missie McGeorge, who had begun the day in second place, one shot behind Brown, was playing in the same threesome and also folded. She matched Brown’s 76 and finished in a tie for 11th at 282.

“We didn’t talk a lot, but naturally both of us knew what the other was going through,” Brown said. “She has never won a tournament, either.”

This is Brown’s sixth season on the tour, McGeorge’s eighth. Each has finished as high as second once.

The other player in Brown’s group, Cathy Gerring, didn’t let the troubles of Brown and McGeorge affect her play. She came in with a 69 and finished second at 276, two shots back of the first-time winner, Kris Monaghan.

Asked about Brown’s tumble, Gerring said, “I really felt sorry for her. She’s a lot like me. She’s probably going to have to win her first one by coming from behind. I tried to encourage her, but when one little thing goes wrong, it seems to snowball.”

Brown also had moral support from the gallery, and showed her appreciation by smiling and waving as she left the course.

“Those people were great,” she said. “They were yelling, ‘Hang in there, Nance.’ That meant a lot to me.”

Brown agreed with Gerring that when she finally does win a tournament, it probably will be by putting on a finishing kick.

“I was leading since the first day, and I was second then,” she said. “It’s tough to deal with the pressures that go with leading a tournament.”

Brown’s rounds in her back-to-back nose dives were remarkably similar. Last year she shot 69-67-70-78; this year, 67-69-69-76.

“I wanted to win so badly today,” she said. “But at least I feel better than I did last time.”