At Long Last, Steinhauer Gets Hang of It : Golf: After seven years on LPGA Tour, she has major breakthrough by winning du Maurier.

For seven years on the LPGA tour, Sherri Steinhauer told herself: Hang in there.

Steinhauer was a dedicated worker in her career, faithfully punching a time clock each day but never taking that big jump up the ladder. Over the years, her frustration grew. She played more tournaments than anyone else on the tour last year, but still couldn’t discover the secret of winning. And she was so tired.

Hang in there, she thought.

Then, last weekend, Steinhauer finished the du Maurier Classic in Winnipeg, Canada, with an 11-under-par 277 for her first LPGA victory. Afterward, Steinhauer sipped champagne and said she felt as though she were dreaming.

Until then, a tournament victory was exactly that, a dream. It began in the hazy imagination of youth when she took up the family hobby as a 6-year-old. It took shape when, at 12, she told a reporter she wanted to become a pro golfer.

Although she improved with each year on the tour, Steinhauer remained unfulfilled. She lingered near the top in many tournaments, but finishing touches eluded her.

In the past two years, she has increased her earnings, but without a victory her career continued to be undistinguished. Steinhauer ranked 24th in 1991, winning $165,568, after being 37th in 1990 and winning $109,407.

After the du Maurier, Steinhauer moved up 11 places on the money list and has won $278,598 this year. Her current ranking of 10th is her best.

Her dream world finally coincides with reality.

“It was a wonderful, wonderful feeling,” Steinhauer said this week from her home in Madison, Wis.

Steinhauer held at least a share of first place for two of the first three rounds in the tournament, last of four majors on the women’s tour. She took a one-shot advantage into the final 18 holes, then birdied the first two holes while second-place Judy Dickinson bogeyed No. 3, giving Steinhauer a four-stroke lead.

Dickinson closed to within one stroke at the 13th hole, but Steinhauer regained a three-shot lead at No. 15 and held on for the victory.

It wasn’t until Steinhauer’s next-to-last putt, a 45-footer that hung on the lip of the cup, that she felt secure in her victory.

“I had chills and all, but I didn’t want to let myself down because I still had to get that putt close,” Steinhauer said. “So my goal was just to get it close, and I couldn’t have asked for a better putt. And then it hit me and I knew I was going to win.”

At that moment, years of unfulfilled golfing potential suddenly melted away.

Steinhauer took up the sport to avoid being left home with a baby-sitter while her four older brothers and parents played golf on weekends.

She won three consecutive titles in the Wisconsin State Junior Championships from 1978-80, and was selected on the All-American second team by the American Junior Golf Assn. in 1981. She won the Wisconsin State Women’s Amateur in 1983 and was the low amateur in that year’s U.S Women’s Open.

In four years playing for the University of Texas, Steinhauer led the team to three national top-20 finishes.

She turned away from the game only once, after a disappointing season at Texas in 1982. But working as a secretary for two weeks in her family-owned business, the Madison Dairy Produce Co., was enough to make her realize her mistake.

“I realized, now wait a minute, you’ve wanted to become a professional golfer all your life and you’re throwing it away too easy,” Steinhauer said. “You’re going to have bumps on the road, and you have to go through that in order to get better.”

Steinhauer qualified for the LPGA Tour on her first attempt, but in her rookie year, it took nine events before she made her first cut. She won only $7,733, ranking 131st.

“I was in such awe of where I was,” Steinhauer said.

In one tournament, Steinhauer’s locker was placed between Jan Stephenson’s and Hollis Stacy’s. “I (was) afraid to go to my locker,” Steinhauer said. “What if they’re there? What would I say?”

Steinhauer returned to qualifying school for the next year and made $45,741 in her second season. She has improved every year since, except in 1989, when she dipped about $10,000 from her 1988 earnings.

“It wasn’t like I was faltering, like I was losing it,” she said. “I could still see improvement in my game. That’s what gave me the confidence.”

Steinhauer sensed that this year would be different when she made the cut in her first tournament, the Oldsmobile LPGA event at Lake Worth, Fla., in February. In each of her previous years on the tour, she never made the cut in the first tournament of the season.

She made some changes in her game this year, especially the putting, which had always been her downfall.

In the U.S. Women’s Open Championship at Oakmont, Pa., last month, Rosie Jones gave Steinhauer a pointer on how to stay connected, not letting her hands or arms break down during a putt. Steinhauer found her putts rolling properly for a change.

“Sherri has had a lot of good tournaments,” said Jones, who has won five tournaments during her 11-year LPGA career. “One little tip might set your mind at ease, tighten up the bolts. It was really up to her to go out and put it all together.”

In the two tournaments before the du Maurier, Steinhauer was on the leader board frequently, but someone else won the big prizes. In the Welch’s LPGA tournament at Canton, Mass., she finished third with a six-under-par 282. After the first three rounds of the McCall’s LPGA tournament at Stratton Mountain, Vt., she was two strokes behind the eventual winner, Florence Descampe. But Steinhauer shot a 73 on the final day and finished tied for 18th place at 286, eight strokes behind Descampe.

Steinhauer was tired of coming so close and losing. “I said to myself, ‘This is the end of six weeks (of tournament play); let’s just hang in there.’ ”

She started with a 67, and each day seemed to retain the momentum with which she finished the previous round. She slipped to a 73, but came back with a 67 and a 70 for the victory.

“The ball was bouncing the right way, and I’m thinking, ‘Maybe this is my time,’ and I just kept riding it and just taking one shot at a time and just enjoying the position I was in,” Steinhauer said.

When it was over, she felt all the pressure fade away.

“The support around Madison has been great for me, but they had all been wondering, ‘Is she going to win?’ ” Steinhauer said.

They should have known she would hang in there.