Springer’s Round No Drive in Park : Buick Invitational: His erratic shot on No. 17 leads to a triple-bogey seven. He drops out of the lead and finishes tied for sixth place.

If it wasn’t the worst shot of Mike Springer’s golf career, it certainly was the costliest.

With one errant swing of his driver on the 17th hole Sunday, Springer saw as much as $149,750 disappear in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines.

Springer, 26, a second-year PGA Tour pro from Fresno, was leading the tournament by one stroke over Steve Pate with two holes to play. Because his drive landed in underbrush next to the left of the fairway, he had to tee off again with a two-stroke penalty and wound up with a triple-bogey seven.

Thanks to that botched shot, Springer finished in a six-way tie for sixth place instead of challenging Pate for the championship. Pate, meanwhile, birdied the final hole to beat Chip Beck by a stroke and repeat the title he won in this event in 1988.

“The swing felt good, but I pulled it to the left,” said the distraught Springer. “After that, there was nothing I could do. It was an unplayable lie.”

Pate shot an even 200 for the tournament, which was cut to 54 holes by Saturday’s fog. Springer, skidding to a par 72 after rounds of 66 and 65, finished at 203.

The miscue left Springer with only $30,250, compared to the $180,000 pocketed by Pate. Even if Springer would have placed second--either outright or in a playoff--he blew a sum of $77,750. Beck’s runner-up prize was $108,000.

Springer earned a respectable $178,587 as a tour rookie in 1991, but had missed the cut in four of his first five tournaments this year and had made only $4,620 in the other. He tied for 38th in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

Strange things tend to happen to golfers who have never won a tournament, and Springer is becoming an expert on the subject. He muffed his only other big chance in the BellSouth Atlanta Classic last year, losing by a stroke after being tied for the lead with four holes remaining.

“I hit a drive into a little hazard,” he recalled. “That knocked me down to a tie for third (his best finish to date).”

Ironically, disaster struck Sunday just when Springer’s confidence level was at its peak. He had just birdied the 15th and 16th holes with putts of 25 and 20 feet and was beginning to think this was his big day.

“I couldn’t have been playing any better,” he said. “I didn’t know I was in the lead, but I figured I was around the lead or tied for it.

“I’ve probably played this course 20 times, and I’ve never had any problems on 17. The toughest part for me has been the green. I was feeling pretty loose, but I knew as soon as I hit the ball that I was in trouble.”

After the ball vanished, play was held up five minutes or so while marshals searched for it along with Springer and his playing partners, Tom Watson and Brad Faxon.

Once the ball was located, there was no doubt Springer would have to tee off a second time. And his travails didn’t end there.

“My second drive went through the fairway into the right rough,” he said, “Then I hit the ball past the green, and on the next shot I chipped over the green. I almost sank a 50-foot putt, but it lipped out on the left edge.

“After that, Watson said to me, ‘You’ve been there, and you’ll get there again. Keep your head up.’ Coming from such a great player, that meant a lot to me.”

Springer said he had played an almost mistake-free round until his drive went awry.

“It’s too bad that one swing cost me the tournament,” he said. “I don’t know when I’ll win one. It could come next week, a year from now or never, but I’m confident that it will.”