GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : Game Led Her to Jump in Lake

Dinah Shore recalled that in 1972 she was an enthusiastic tennis player who was led reluctantly into golf.

The entertainer certainly didn’t envision at the time how her life would be changed.

“The Colgate company was sponsoring my television show, and I was a tennis player.” she said. “I didn’t play golf.

“However, the powers that be decided they were going to (sponsor) a golf tournament. I said make it tennis. I didn’t want to look like a dummy in two sports.”

Golf, however, prevailed.

“So I took a crash course in golf six weeks before the tournament, working with a pro,” she said. “I didn’t belong to a country club. It was very hard for a single woman to join one then.

“I got hooked on golf. I don’t care if I never go back on the tennis court. I have this beautiful tennis court in my backyard, but if anyone calls me to play golf, I’ll do it.

“I play golf two to three times a week now that I’m living in the desert.”

She’ll be staging her own tournament starting Thursday at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage, the 21st annual Nabisco Dinah Shore, one of four major events on the LPGA Tour.

From a 1972 start as a 54-hole tournament, it has grown in stature over the years. The purse for the first tournament was $110,000, then a record for women. Now it’s $700,000.

Amy Alcott is defending champion, having won the tournament for the third time in 1991, when she dragged her caddy and hostess into a pond bordering the 18th green after her victory.

Shore had promised Alcott, however reluctantly, that she would take the water jump with her if she won the tournament again.

“I didn’t have enough sense to go in feet first,” Shore said. “I didn’t know how deep it was. All I knew was that the previous tenants were ducks, which flew off and left some residue.”

Now, if Alcott wins the tournament for a fourth time, what will she do for an encore?

“I’ve said I’ll leave the pond to her,” Shore said. “But what do you do? A bungee jump from the tower?”

She admitted that she’s addicted to golf and is playing again after undergoing surgery on her left knee.

“Before knee surgery I played to about a 19 handicap,” Shore said. “Now I’m playing to 22. All that jogging and all that tennis playing on cement hurt my knee. I can shoot 85 regularly if I can get the short game going.”

Statistics show that an increasing number of women are playing golf.

“It’s great way to socialize,” Shore said. “In tennis, everyone takes a shower and goes back to the office. They say you conduct business on a course, but I don’t think that’s it. You get to know someone.

“A lot of women are in business today. But you don’t talk business on the course; you talk golf. And you get to know wonderful things about people. It’s a very humanizing--and humbling--sport.”

Shore is still active professionally, but at her own pace. She said she does a talk show occasionally on a cable network and participates in concerts around the country--between rounds of golf.

“I have a nice life,” she said. “If someone begged me, maybe I would go back into the studio every day, but it’s not as much fun. When you get a day off, you sleep around the clock.

“Nabisco sends me out on pro-am tournaments and that’s a lot of fun.

Golf Notes

The Players West Golf Tour, a California-based circuit, will hold a 54-hole event starting Tuesday at Upland Hills Country Club. The Players West Tour is open to women pros and low-handicap amateurs, the majority of whom are preparing to earn a card for the LPGA Tour. . . . Ed Tanabe, president of Valencia Country Club, will assume new duties with Uniden Corp. in Tokyo. He will be succeeded by Ken Kikuchi, a 22-year veteran of the corporation.

The Riverside Senior Open pro-am will be held May 2-4 at the General Old Course on March Air Force Base in Riverside. . . . The Mission Viejo golf tournament, benefiting the Junior Wheelchair sports and tennis training camp program for physically disabled children, will be held June 15 at Mission Viejo CC.

The San Gabriel Valley YMCA-WINGS celebrity pro-am golf tournament will be held May 1-2 at the Sierra-La Verne CC in La Verne. The tournament raises money for shelters for battered women and their children. . . . Qualifying for the 68th annual Long Beach Match Play Championship at the Skylinks course will be held May 2-3. . . . Carl Parmer and Harold Allen won the low net division of the 12th annual Two-Man Championship earlier this month at Wilshire CC. Bud Bradley and Dave Hatfield were the loss gross winners, 69-67--136.