Amy Alcott’s Claim to Fame : Golf: Another victory in the Dinah Shore would put her in the LPGA’s most exclusive club.

Amy Alcott doesn’t have to be reminded that she’s only one victory away from qualifying for the LPGA Hall of Fame.

Alcott has 29 victories in a pro career that began in 1975, and it would be fitting if No. 30 was achieved at her favorite tournament.

She is the defending champion of the Nabisco Dinah Shore, which begins today at Mission Hills Country Club. Moreover, she’s the only three-time winner of the event.

“I can’t make one step left, or right, without someone mentioning it,” Alcott said, referring to a 30th victory.

To qualify for the LPGA Hall of Fame, players must win at least 30 events, including two different major championships; 35 events with one major title or 40 events without winning a major. Only 12 players have been inducted.

“I deserve to be in the Hall of Fame,” Alcott said. “I’ve been at this long enough, and to me it’s a number. And I’m going to give it another year, or a year and a half playing tournament golf with a relatively full schedule.

“If I don’t get into the Hall of Fame by then, I’ll really cut back. It’s important in my life to achieve this, but I’m not going to play until I’m 50 or 60 at the pace I am now.

“It (No. 30) is sort of like a Ph.D., but I have another life to lead.”

Alcott, 36, who lives in Santa Monica, put her career in perspective when she said: “The most important thing to me is that I’ve hit great golf shots. I’ve made the game exciting for people. I’ve won with my own style and in my own way. And that gives me a lot of pleasure.

“Winning one more tournament, or five more, is not going to prove anything to me that I don’t already know.”

Last year, when she won here, she dragged her caddie, Bill Kurre, and Dinah Shore into a muddy pond bordering the 18th green. As for an encore?

“If I do win, I’ll probably do some cartwheels,” she said.

Alcott said there is a special feeling winning a prestigious tournament such as the Dinah Shore.

“It’s the greatest walk in women’s golf,” she said. “It’s like walking up the 18th at Augusta. You get to walk across that bridge and hear all the cheering fans going nuts and being crazy.”

Alcott almost had a serious setback to her career when she was involved in an automobile accident six weeks ago.

“I was going to play golf at Bel-Air Country club when a woman on Sunset Boulevard just appeared out in my lane,” she said. “I was about 30 to 40 feet away from her when it happened, and I was going 30 m.p.h.

“I swerved to miss her, but she still smashed into me. She just didn’t see me. So I jarred my back, and it still tightens up on me, especially in this rainy weather.

“I’m lucky I didn’t have any broken bones. But there’s the emotional trauma of it all. I’ve been hitting balls, but I can’t hit as many because my back still isn’t 100%.”

Although Alcott hasn’t finished higher than 11th in six tournaments this year, she feels good about her game.

“I haven’t put four really good rounds together this year, but the makings are there.” she said.

Alcott acknowledges that there is a confidence factor favoring her in the Dinah Shore tournament, one of four major LPGA events.

“I seem to play the course very well, although every year is different,” she said. “Some years I’ve played very bad, and other years I’ve gone there and played some of the best golf of my career.

“Last year was probably the greatest tournament I’ve ever played.”

She won with a record score of 15-under-par 273 and was eight shots ahead of second-place Dottie Mochrie.

“It was also a very traumatic year for me,” Alcott said, referring to the death of her mother. “It isn’t easy to lose a parent, but I felt my mom was with me. A lot of people felt there was something spiritual there.”

Alcott and other veterans of the LPGA tour will be challenged by some talented younger players such as Mochrie, Meg Mallon, Dawn Coe, Brandie Burton and Danielle Ammaccapane in the 72-hole tournament.

“There’s that guard of Alcott, Beth Daniel, Betsy King, Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley and Patty Sheehan,” Alcott said. “They’ve all had their time and have come to the forefront.

“But now you’re undergoing what I call the enthusiasm transition. For the players who have been out there a long time, the most difficult thing to maintain is to be charged up and motivated.

“That’s where some of these younger players now have an advantage, because they’re coming into their charged-up prime. The more established veterans have to work harder at maintaining it.”

Alcott once had a namesake racehorse. Asked what became of it, she said: “It went out to pasture. It just wouldn’t get out of the gate. It’s totally opposite of me.”

As for the prospect of winning here for the fourth time, opening the door to the Hall of Fame, Alcott smiled and said: “I wouldn’t bet against me.”

Golf Notes

Amy Alcott didn’t make the cut in a recent tournament at Phoenix, mainly because she was assessed a two-stroke penalty for slow play. “That had never happened to me before.” she said. “I didn’t feel like I deserved it, but nobody feels like they do. But they had me on the clock with my group that was playing a little bit slow.” . . . Dawn Coe is the leading money-winner on the tour for 1992, having earned $151,097 in six events. Brandie Burton is second with $128, 171. . . . Alcott said that the criteria to get into the LPGA Hall of Fame are the most difficult in sports, adding: “You have to play yourself into it, and I think it’s a little archaic and needs to be looked at.”