Davies Mixes Power, Finesse to Produce Lopsided Victory : Golf: Her putting game returns in time to claim Inamori Classic title.

For power-hitting Laura Davies, it was just a matter of getting her putter under control.

Throughout the $400,000 Inamori Classic at StoneRidge, Davies amazed peers and spectators with her ability to hit golf balls into space without using woods. The only thing that kept rivals close for three days was her trouble on the greens.

Davies, the 27-year-old Briton, was a complete golfer Sunday. She putted as well as she hit her irons, perhaps even better, and the result was a lop-sided finish to what had been a remarkably competitive event.

Davies entered the final round in second place, one shot behind Tina Barrett, but took the lead on the eighth hole and went on to win by four strokes over Lynn Connelly and Judy Dickinson. Her five-under-par 67 put her 11 under for the tournament at 277.

Connelly also closed with a 67, and Dickinson shot a 69.

Barrett had a chance to tie Connelly and Dickinson at 281, but a bogey on the 18th hole shoved her into a fourth place tie with Robin Walton at 282. She shot a 73, and Walton, who had been tied with Davies after three rounds, had a par 72.

First place was worth $60,000 to Davies and broke a slump so severe that she had earned a mere $4,630 in five previous 1991 tournaments, in three of which she had missed the cut.

The runner-up spot was worth $32,000 each to Connelly and Dickinson, something that both found fitting because they are close friends and coached by Dickinson’s husband, Gardner, a veteran of the PGA and PGA Senior Tours. Barrett and Walton pocketed $19,000 each.

The hottest round of the tournament--and the noisiest--was posted by Patti Rizzo, who fired a 66 to the accompaniment of a segment of fans who call themselves Rizzo’s Rebels, a dozen or so of whom were quite loud.

The run of birdies lifted Rizzo, who won this tournament in 1989, out of nowhere into sixth place and a check for $14,000.

As usual, Davies, who once hit a drive 354 yards by actual measurement, disdained her woods except for the second shot on the 10th hole.

“My irons have been good to me, so why change?” she said.

But the difference was in her putting, of which she said, “It was amazing. The way I’d been playing on the greens, it just had to happen today. I thought to myself that if I don’t get agitated, they’ll roll in. Eventually they did.”

You wouldn’t have known it from the ever-present smile on her face--she is one of the best-liked players on the LPGA Tour--but Davies had been upset about her game until she got here.

“I’ve won 17 tournaments now, including five out here, but the way I’d been playing was destroying my confidence,” she said. “I was getting miserable.”

As it was, Davies’ victory was bittersweet for her and her family. Her stepmother died last Thursday, and her father had just returned from the funeral when she called him with her good news.

“It was nice to win it for my father,” she said. “He was sobbing when I rang him up.”

Davies mentioned that it was Mother’s Day, which momentarily jolted reporters who thought they might have forgotten something.

“Oh, that’s just in England,” she said.

After three holes Sunday, Davies was three strokes behind Barrett. She bogeyed No. 1 for the third time in four days--”That hole was cruel to me,” she said--before finding her putting groove. She began sinking birdies on the fourth hole, which was the same time that Barrett began taking bogeys.

After a par on No. 5, Davies birdied 6, 7 and 8 in succession. Subsequent birdies on 16 and 17 gave her six for the day.

“I was very fortunate,” Davies said. “On 16, I made about a 60-foot putt. On 4, I just tried to get it close and it went in. On 6, I hit a ball onto the cart path, and I got to drop the ball on the lucky side.”

Once she had established a comfortable lead, Davies uncharacteristically but wisely got conservative.

“On 17, just dipped it up about six feet from the green,” she said. “I never did that before. Once I got to 18, I knew I could take five putts and still win.”

Being as strong as she is, Davies was asked if she had considered playing on the men’s tour.

She laughed and said, “I think I’d starve to death.”

As happy as Connelly was about her tie for second place, she lamented the second-round 75 that may have cost her the championship. She also regretted leaving a birdie putt an inch short on 18.

“But I can’t complain,” said Connelly, 30, who has yet to win since joining the tour in 1985. “My dad surprised me by coming to town Friday night, and that’s when my luck changed. Saturday morning, he said I was going to shoot a 68. He was right, so I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you say 66?’

“Believe me, though, I would like to give credit to Gardner Dickinson. His teaching has been a blessing to me.”

This was the best finish in three years for Judy Dickinson, 41, and she also had words of thanks for her husband.

“Gardner got me to put the ball way back on my putting stance,” she said. “Now I get more topspin on the ball.”

Barrett, 24, who owns one tour victory, took her last-day slip philosophically, saying, “For a while we were in a shootout, and that was fun. I think I handled it pretty well for not having been there that often.”

For Walton, 35, the frustrating finish kept intact a career-long victory drought of 12-plus seasons.

“I just didn’t make any putts,” she said. “I’m a little disappointed.

LPGA Notes

Patti Rizzo gave at least partial credit for her spectacular finish--her 66 was the best round of the Inamori Classic--to sessions of hypnosis with Jerry Marks of La Costa. Marks is a retired diagnostic radiologist, and Rizzo has been spending the winter in Carlsbad.

“My biggest enemy has been lack of self-confidence,” Rizzo said. “Everybody in the world believed in me except me. I had a session with Dr. Marks Friday night, and when I made all those birdies today, I started thinking about breaking 60. He has helped me tremendously.”

Defending champion Kris Monaghan finished with a 75 and a total of 290. . . . Ayako Okamoto, who won the tournament in 1987 and 1988, closed with a 70 for 289. . . . Meg Mallon of Ramona shot her second consecutive 72 for 293, and Deedee Lasker of San Diego had a 76 for 295. Mallon said afterward, “I’m going to meet next week with my coach, Mike McGetrick. I need a lesson.”. . . Nancy Brown, who blew leads in the last round in each of last two tournaments here, reversed the procedure this time. After rounds of 75, 68 and 75, she shot a 68 to climb from a tie for 30th place to finish alone in 12th place with a 286.