Monaghan’s Career Back In Doldrums : Golf: Last year’s Inamori winner still looking for second victory.

Kris Monaghan figured that if she could just get that elusive first victory, she would be on her way.

That’s the conventional way of thinking on the pro golf tours. Winning a tournament after a long struggle supposedly gives such a boost to a player’s confidence that more success will follow.

As it turns out, that hasn’t applied to Monaghan. Since ending a career-long drought by winning the Red Robin Kyocera Inamori tournament at StoneRidge last April, she has fared no better than in her previous five seasons on the LPGA Tour. Her best subsequent finish has been a tie for 17th place.

Nevertheless, Monaghan regards her return to relative anonymity as a positive experience. She talked about it as she prepared to defend her title in what is now simply the Inamori Classic, which will be held at StoneRidge today through Sunday.

“I was basically introverted,” Monaghan said. “I was timid, maybe afraid of people. My whole life was centered on golf. When I won this tournament, I realized there was more to life than golf.”

Monaghan recalled that in her youth, she was interested only in golf and other sports, especially skiing.

“My social and private life suffered,” she said. “My social skills weren’t that great, either. I wasn’t the most open person on the tour, and I wasn’t the best-liked. If you don’t communicate with your peers, they don’t know you. They may think you’re pompous.

“When you’re like I was, you can win and win and win and if there’s nobody to share it with, it’s no fun. I just wanted to be a better person. Once I won, I opened up. I felt like I belonged.”

Now that she is more at ease among her contemporaries, Monaghan, 30, would like to join them in turning her favorite sport into a profit-making enterprise.

Before 1990, her annual earnings for five seasons ranged between $17,639 and $21,937. Last year, she won $20,725 besides the $45,000 she pocketed at StoneRidge. This year, she has won only $2,415, having missed the cut in two of three tournaments.

That’s consistency, but not the kind of which financial security is made.

“I guess you could say I had a letdown,” she said. “At the beginning of last year, my main goal was to win a tournament at last. It was such a thrill to win that I enjoyed it the rest of the year. After I won, I didn’t have another goal to shoot for, and I probably didn’t work as hard.

“All those years, I couldn’t win, I was in a bad way for money. It costs about $40,000 to break even on the tour, and I was only making half that much. I would bum money, borrow money, beg money--anything to keep going. In ‘89, I had to borrow from a bank.

“Once I had won the tournament and had money in the bank for the first time, I didn’t really need to play good golf. I felt a sense of accomplishment, and that made it easier for me to relax.”

This is not to say that Monaghan let her sudden windfall go to her head.

“I didn’t change my lifestyle,” she said. “I still stay in private housing. I prefer that to a hotel. I can do my laundry, watch TV, have people to talk to. It makes the weeks away from home a lot more enjoyable.

“Here I stay right on the course, with members, and that’s really nice.”

Monaghan also saves money by not hiring high-priced professional caddies. Her caddy here is Robert Delgado, a former San Diego State golfer who happened to be in the caddy shack when she walked in before the tournament a year ago. Delgado is in his final semester at SDSU and plans a pro golf career of his own.

“Robert played a big part in my winning the tournament,” Monaghan said. “He knew what to say and how to say it. We weren’t in contact with each other about his caddying again this year, but we had kind of a standing date.”

Having pinpointed the cause of her problem, Monaghan looks ahead with renewed determination to establishing herself as a name player.

“I don’t really have any regrets, but I’m disappointed,” she said. “I’m frustrated, but I’ve learned a lot from what happened.

“My strength is accuracy. I keep the ball on the fairway. That’s a big key in this game, but I have to be more focused and concentrate better.

“Like everybody else, I thought once I won, I’d win again. Now I realize I have to wait my turn.”

Monaghan won here a year ago in dramatic fashion, rallying from four strokes behind on the final 18 holes to win by two over Cathy Gerring and Rosie Jones. She shot a 67, including a 31 on the front nine.

True, Monaghan got a big assist in the form of Nancy Brown’s second last-day collapse in a row. She gained nine strokes on Brown, who reeled to a 76.

Still, there was nothing fluky about the victory that finally took Monaghan out of red ink. She birdied the fifth, sixth, eighth, ninth and 11th holes, then survived two bogeys on the back nine.

In the final reckoning, two remarkable shots made the difference between winning the tournament and winding up in a three-way playoff.

On the 11th hole, Monaghan sank a 25-foot birdie putt, which led her to say, “When that went in, I was feeling a little unconscious.”

And that was routine compared to her birdie on 15, which she made by chipping in from 30 feet out of the right front bunker.

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

Many golfers will tell you that they would prefer to be a bit off the pace going into the final round, and that’s the way Monaghan felt. She was tied for fourth place after 54 holes.

“I was in the second-to-last group,” she said. “I think it’s a real advantage not to be in the last group, because there’s more pressure if you’re leading.

“I felt calm. I don’t know that I thought about winning until I got ahead. I knew I was ahead at the turn, because everybody was at the 10th tee when I got there.

“I didn’t want to look at the leader board, because I wanted to keep concentrating and not worry. When I did look at the board near the 12th tee and it struck me that I was ahead, I got a little nervous. But once I holed out that bunker shot on 15, I knew I was going to win the tournament.”

Monaghan, who attended the universities of Oklahoma and New Mexico, lives in Albuquerque and did a lot more skiing than golfing this winter.

“I love downhill skiing, and we had a tremendous amount of snow back home,” she said. “But I have a hitting net in the garage, so I got some practice indoors.”

Finally, Monaghan waxed philosophically about both the past and the future.

“Winning here was no doubt the highlight of my career and probably will be,” she said. “I’m a little older now, and I hope I’m getting a little wiser.”

LPGA INAMORI CLASSIC

Site: StoneRidge Country Club, Poway. Take I-15 to Rancho Bernardo Road exit; go east about three miles and follow the signs.

When: Today through Sunday. First tee times today and Friday, 7 a.m.

Who: A field of 144 LPGA players. After 36 holes, cut will be made to low 70 and ties.

Defending champion: Kris Monaghan.

Prize money: $400,000. Winner to receive $60,000; runner-up, $37,000.

Tickets: Available at gate. Today and Friday, $10; Saturday and Sunday, $15. Season pass, $35; for senior citizens, $25. Active military personnel with ID admitted free.