Burton Is Learning, Earning : Women’s golf: Rialto native won $176,412 as the LPGA’s rookie of the year in 1991, and she is playing even better now.

As a rookie on the LPGA tour last year, Brandie Burton was so young she had trouble renting a car to get to the tournaments. Once she got there, though, she played well beyond her years.

At 19, she won $176,412 and rookie-of-the-year honors, justifying her decision to turn professional after one year at Arizona State.

This season, Burton, of Rialto, is even more successful. She has won a tournament (the Ping-Welch at Tucson) and had four other top-10 finishes.

After Sunday’s final round of the Nabisco Dinah Shore at Mission Hills, she has earned $170,000 from eight tournaments and 31 remain.

Burton started the day at five strokes off the lead but made five birdies on the front nine. She shot a 68 to finish the 72 holes tied for third with Patty Sheehan at seven under par, two strokes behind playoff winner Dottie Mochrie.

“I love pressure. I thrive on it,” Burton said. “I feel like I play my best when pressure is applied. I was five back starting the day, but I was four back in Tucson when I won, so there was a chance.”

Burton’s aggressive approach to the game has helped make her a crowd favorite. She hits the ball long--her driving average is third on the tour--and always seems to go for the pin.

On the sixth hole, she hit a nine-iron shot 130 yards, the ball hitting the stick on the second bounce and rolling a foot away. Word spread through the gallery that she “almost” had a hole in one, but it was actually her approach shot on the hole, a 375-yard, par four.

“People have been great to me out here and I have a lot of fun,” Burton said.

“I am fearless. I think I can shoot the pin down and not be scared. But you do get butterflies in your stomach, and you do get a little timid at times and the hands get a little tight with the putter. But that’s where the fun is.”

Burton putted well on the front nine, sinking birdie putts of 10 yards and 20 yards, but her putting faltered on the backside. After she bogeyed the 11th hole, she shot par the rest of the way.

Jan Stephenson hasn’t won on the tour since 1987, when, after being injured in a car accident, she was able to come back and win three tournaments.

She is used to being a star on the LPGA tour, but until Saturday, when she shot a 68 to move to four under par, it had been a year since her name was on a leader board.

Doctors told Stephenson that it would take her two years to come back from her latest injury, a splintered ring finger suffered when she was mugged in a parking lot in Miami in 1990.

But Stephenson believed she could come back sooner than the doctors predicted, and has paid the price.

She had to make adjustments in her swing, which caused her to work harder on her long game and ignore her short game. Her ring finger will never be the same and will be permanently bent, but she says it is strong and pain free. The only pain Stephenson feels now is not being a superstar anymore.

“It’s hard for me. I am a perfectionist,” Stephenson said. “I am used to being in contention and I have been struggling so badly . . . it is hard for me to hold my head up when I’m not.”

Stephenson, 40, hasn’t finished in the top 10 on the money list since 1988, when she placed ninth. Last year she made slightly less than $50,000 and placed 88th.

The Dinah Shore is the only major tournament Stephenson has not won. Stephenson tied for 12th here, her best finish of the season.

She was four strokes off the lead going into the final round, but finished seven strokes behind. Still, it is an improvement for Stephenson, whose best 1992 finish before this tournament was a tie for 66th place.