Lofland Elevates Goals After Early Windfall : Golf: Finishing second in her first LPGA tournament helps Oxnard woman rank third in earnings among tour rookies.

LPGA rookie Dana Lofland had reasonable expectations going into the 1991 tour. Middle of the pack would do nicely. Win enough money to be invited back for a second year. Slowly build a career. Then came the first tournament, the Oldsmobile Classic in Lakewood, Fla., and Lofland’s modest goals were quickly forgotten--rookie of the year seemed more like it.

Finishing second at Lakewood in January, Lofland registered a 10-under-par 278, two strokes behind one of the hottest golfers on the tour, Meg Mallon. Suddenly, an unexpected bankroll appeared in her purse. Lofland’s prize money of $37,000--more than her father made in a year--virtually guaranteed her a berth on the ’92 tour.

At that point, “I had to readjust what I wanted to accomplish,” Lofland said. She decided to aim high and “shoot for rookie of the year,” which is determined by prize money.

But with higher goals came more intense pressure to play well, and her game suffered. Putts wouldn’t drop. Her chipping was erratic. She didn’t make the cut in 10 of the next 25 events. “I thought it would always be as easy as that first tournament, but it wasn’t,” Lofland said.

Still, the 24-year-old Lofland has made a splash, winning more than $85,000, third-highest among rookies. In the recent MBS-LPGA Classic in Buena Park, her final two rounds of 69 and 68 gave her ninth place, only the second time she made the top 10. Overall, she is 55th in winnings, automatically qualifying for next year’s tour.

“We did all right,” Lofland said, referring to herself and husband John Dormann, who had a pretty good year as a professional caddy. After caddying for Dana for the first six tournaments, Dormann switched to Mallon, who has won more than $600,000, of which Dormann receives between 5% and 10%.

No, he didn’t leave his wife for the money.

“We knew it would be better if he’d caddy for another player,” Dana said. “It would take the stress off me.”

Lofland was sitting in the living room of her parents’ house in Oxnard, where she grew up. Taking a few weeks off before flying--first class, she points out--to Japan for the Nov. 8-10 Mazda Classic, Lofland visited her mother Peggy and father Bud.

A retired data manager for the Navy, Bud Lofland doesn’t want to take credit for his daughter’s success--he said she got her athletic ability from Peggy, a former dancer--but it was he who took the time to get Dana involved in sports at an early age.

The first time he saw her hit a ball, in fact, he knew she would be a great player--volleyball player, that is. “Her first spike went over the net,” he said.

Dana began playing golf at age 9, taking lessons at the Oxnard Department of Parks and Recreation, but her golfing ability didn’t really impress Bud at first. “Golf came a little slower to her,” he said.

That was back when Dana was shorter than a two-iron and “didn’t take the game seriously,” she said. By the ripe old age of 11, however, she was a serious player, entering the Junior World Championship (she missed the cut).

As a youngster, her game was raised a notch by the presence of her next-door neighbors, Paul and Tom Stankowski, brothers who were also golf phenoms (each wound up with a college golf scholarship). Oxnard didn’t have a golf course until the mid-1980s, but Dana and the Stankowskis were able to play across the street in Port Hueneme at the Seabee Golf Club.

Even though Dana entered Hueneme High two years early, she made the boys’ golf team and could still spike--she was chosen All-Southern Section in volleyball.

Graduating high school at 16, Dana was faced with an adult decision: which sport to play. She knew that picking one meant practically dropping the other, but she chose golf based on the earning potential of female golfers as opposed to female volleyball players. She did, however, maintain an association with volleyball, rooming with three volleyball players in college.

On a scholarship at golf powerhouse San Jose State, Lofland won the Junior World championship and the U.S. Junior championship her freshman year and was Golf magazine’s No. 1-ranked junior. In her junior year, she led San Jose State to the NCAA Division I women’s title. When her college eligibility expired after the 1988 season, she tried to qualify for the LPGA tour but failed to make the cut in either of the two prequalifying events.

“I’d thought I was ready for the LPGA,” Dana said. “It was discouraging.”

Needing a break, she decided to finish her degree in business finance and get away from tournament golf. That’s when she met Dormann, not on the links but the court--they were taking a tennis class together. A loan officer for a finance company, Dormann didn’t have much of a golf background, but “he encouraged me to get back into tournaments,” Dana said.

They were married in the summer of ’90 and took off the next day for Europe, where Dana played in tournaments, finishing third in the British Open. Returning home, she entered the LPGA’s qualifying school in Ormond, Fla. Out of 120 entrants, only 23 would get their cards and be among the 142 exempt players on the tour.

For Lofland to qualify, she needed a 10-foot birdie putt on the last hole of the 72-hole event. It dropped and she was in. “I’d been waiting all my life to get on the tour and it came down to one hole of golf,” she said. “That was really nerve-racking.”

Making it through a full season is important in the development of a young golfer. Now she knows what to expect and can prepare better.

“I wasn’t used to playing golf year round,” she said. “The travel was also very tiring.”

Next year, she plans to play five tournaments in a row, then take a week off. Now if Dormann can only get Mallon on the same schedule . . .