Murphy’s Fan Fuels Inner Fire : Golf: Five golfers share one-stroke lead after one round at the Inamori Classic.

The Mary Murphy Fan Club apparently had adjourned early.

An empty grandstand greeted the day’s final golfer, but as she had hoped, it will be reported that she finished with a birdie for a two-under 70 in the first round of the LPGA Inamori Classic at the StoneRidge Country Club.

Although Dana Lofland, Donna Andrews, Judy Dickinson, Val Skinner and Barb Thomas had finished a shot better than Murphy at 69--worth a share of the lead--there is one Murphy supporter who will be thrilled by the results.

“When Monday’s pro-am was washed out by the rain I met this remarkable lady, Susan DeRose, who had spent the previous 10 days with her daughter in the hospital,” Murphy said. “Her daughter had been in a car accident and she’s still in a coma. Eighteen years old. It’s the second time it has happened.

“Her daughter, Allison, had just recovered from another car accident with five years of therapy. And here I had spent the whole week up in Northern California trying to get things in perspective after missing the cut in the first three tournaments of the year.

“It was a real eye opener,” Murphy said. “She’s got problems and she’s telling me, ‘Just play as hard as you can this week and have at least one good round.’ So I was extremely motivated to get one good round in, so she could look at the paper and then tell Allison--you don’t know if she can hear or not--that the old pro played pretty good for her.”

Murphy’s score looked even better on the leader board at day’s end, but then a generous scorekeeper had credited her with a birdie on No. 14 rather than a bogey.

Had there been any fans around, they might have left cheering her as the first-round leader.

“I’m going to have to get the scoring lady to start traveling with me; I like this mulligan golf,” Murphy said. “I had hit the ball out of bounds on my drive, but made birdie on my second ball. The scorekeeper gave me birdie, figuring they wouldn’t charge me for out of bounds. I like her rules.”

Although no one seemed inclined to leave the pack, Meg Mallon lurked one stroke back of the lead with Murphy and five other golfers.

Mallon, playing in front of friends and family from Ramona, three-putted No. 18 to end an otherwise fine day.

“I played very well; it was a solid round,” Mallon said. “It’s too bad about the three-putt on No. 18, but I won’t dwell on it. I’m going to concentrate on how I played those other 17 holes.

“The nice thing about my round was my putting. Just about every putt was around the hole. You have to have tap-ins on your second putts, or you’re going to be suffering all day long. That second putt on 18 (3 1/2 feet) was the longest I had all day.”

Mallon went on a winning binge last season with four victories, including the LPGA Championship and U.S. Women’s Open. In her last two outings this year, she had tied for 11th and tied for ninth.

“Last year was wonderful and I’m not going to compare it to any other year,” said Mallon, who earned $633,802 in 1991 after collecting $198,529 in her first four years on the tour. “I’m going to go out and try and make a real good living again this year and maybe sneak in a win.”

Dawn Coe, last week’s winner of the Kemper Open, matched Mallon’s three-putt on No. 18 to finish even with Mallon, Murphy, Laurel Kean, Elaine Crosby, Kim Williams and Helen Alfredson.

“After (winning) last week I thought I’d have a bit of a letdown,” Coe said. “But I came out strong.”

Crosby, who began playing golf at 20 after a try at tennis, had the early lead at four-under after 13 holes. But then she suffered “a total loss of concentration,” she said, and four-putted for a double-bogey seven. She regained her composure to par out.

“I was just thinking before I started play today that I hadn’t three-putted (the past two weeks),” Crosby said. “Well, I still haven’t.”

While the leaders were stuck at three-under, only 21 golfers broke par. Defending champion Laura Davies closed at one-over, and Shelley Hamlin, a winner at the Inverrary earlier this year, posted a seven-over 79.

* SUIT CONTINUES

StoneRidge President Don Fischer is suing tournament-sponsor Kyocera for money he says he is owed from the 1989 tournament. C8