GOLF / LPGA TOURNAMENT AT POWAY : Davies Improves Putting, Wins by Four Shots

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

Sunday, under cloudy skies that threatened rain but never delivered any, the 27-year-old Briton was a complete golfer.

Davies entered the final round of the $400,000 Inamori Classic 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 had a 67, but had to climb from a tie for 10th place. Dickinson, who had been tied for fourth after 54 holes, closed with a 69.

Barrett had a chance to tie Connelly and Dickinson at 281, but a bogey on the 18th hole dropped her to 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. She had earned a mere $4,630 in five previous 1991 tournaments, missing the cut in three.

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

The best round of the tournament--and the noisiest--was posted by Patti Rizzo, who shot a 66 to the accompaniment of fans who call themselves Rizzo’s Rebels.

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

As usual, Davies disdained her woods except for the second shot on the 10th hole, on which she used her driver for only the third time in the tournament.

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

But the difference was 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.”