Duel for First May Be Just Between Friends : Dinah Shore golf: Inkster leads Sheehan by one shot, but they are not alone at the top.

Patty Sheehan and Juli Inkster are good friends and played golf together at San Jose State.

Today, as opponents, they will be playing for bigger stakes in the final round of the Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament at Mission Hills Country Club.

“We’ll both play as hard as we can, but it won’t be patty-cake out there,” Sheehan said Saturday, not intentionally making a play on words.

Inkster, who won the Dinah Shore tournament in 1984 and 1989, is the 54-hole leader. She shot a four-under-par 68 for a three-day total of 208, eight under.

Sheehan shot a 69 and is one stroke behind Inkster. Dottie Mochrie, who had a 70, is in contention at 210, and so is Jan Stephenson (68) at 212.

“Playing with Patty will be tough. I want to win badly and so does she,” Inkster said.

Inkster said it’s the first time she has been paired with Sheehan in a final round when both were in contention since 1983 at the Inamori tournament in San Diego. Sheehan won.

Inkster, 31, and Sheehan, 35, are among the elite players on the LPGA tour. Inkster has won 14 tournaments, Sheehan has won 26.

Each had to survive some unusual circumstances to get into a contending position.

There was reportedly a fight between two men on the ninth fairway, where Inkster was playing.

“I don’t know what really happened,” Inkster said. “I heard a woman yell, ‘Bill, don’t do that. Get away Bill.’ Poor Bill was not having a good day.”

Then, when Inkster was signing her card after her round, an LPGA official asked Inkster if her ball had moved while she was addressing it at the fringe of the 13th green.

Inkster was going to hit the ball with her putter, but switched to a wedge.

“The ball then moved an iota,” Inkster said. “Then, as I brought the club back, the ball went back to where it was.”

There was no penalty.

Sheehan’s tee shot on the par-five 18th hole landed on a television cable. Instead of taking a drop in the rough, Sheehan elected to hit the ball off the cable.

“I can’t say that I practice that shot too often,” Sheehan said. “It was like hitting a ball off a mat at a driving range.”

She picked it off cleanly with a four-iron, hit another four-iron to the green and then made a 20-foot putt for a birdie.

The 36-hole leader, Beth Daniel, shot a four-over-par 76, including a double bogey on the 18th hole.

Dawn Coe, who was one stroke behind Daniel after Friday’s round, had a 79, getting a triple bogey on No. 18.

Mochrie said the rough is getting tougher, and the key to winning is to stay out of it.

Stephenson has had to persevere to stay in contention in the tournament. She said she got food poisoning Thursday night and was sick again before her round Friday.

“My caddie kept telling me to try one more hole, to keep playing,” Stephenson said. “And I just took my time on short putts.”

She still managed to shoot 72 Friday: “I don’t feel 100%, but I feel better than I did on Friday.”

Stephenson, 40, has won three of the four LPGA major events: the U.S. Women’s Open, the LPGA Championship and the Peter Jackson Classic that has since been replaced by the du Maurier Classic as a major. Only the Dinah Shore championship has eluded her.

Hall of Fame player Pat Bradley, who is five strokes behind Inkster, is the only current player to have won all four major events.