GOLF / MAL FLORENCE : Mochrie and Her Caddie Enjoy a Blissful Arrangement

Teamwork is essential in any sport--even golf. Yes, of course, golf is an individual sport, but a resourceful, knowledgeable caddie can be a great asset to a player.

Dottie Mochrie’s caddie is her best friend and teacher. He’s also her husband.

Mochrie, last year’s LPGA player of the year, usually travels the circuit with her husband, Doug.

The arrangement works for them, but it didn’t for Nancy Lopez and her husband, Ray Knight, a former major league baseball player.

Mochrie, 27, said she met Doug when she was 13, but they didn’t start dating until she was attending Furman University. They were married in July of 1986.

“He missed only two tournaments last year and I happened to win one of them,” Mochrie said, laughing.

“It’s not a caddie-player relationship. It’s a teacher-player relationship,” she added. “He reads greens and gives me the numbers, but he does a lot more than that.

As for advice, Mochrie said: “If I ask for it. If he sees something like my tempo is picking up pretty quick, he’ll say something. It’s my choice to take it or not.”

Doug Mochrie is a former pro. Dottie said that he still carries a Class A golf card, adding, “One day I’ll do the minor part when I get through with this crazy stuff. Then, he’ll go back to teaching. His communication skills are extremely good.”

Mochrie said that Doug, 35, also has marketing skills and a certification in agronomy.

The player-husband relationship didn’t work out with Nancy and Ray.

“It’s different,” Mochrie said. “Ray was a great athlete in his own right and he wasn’t Nancy’s instructor. I think Doug and I have a special way of keeping the husband and wife, best friend and buddy, away from the golf course.”

Mochrie won four tournaments last year, starting with the Nabisco Dinah Shore, one of four major events on the women’s tour.

She rallied on the final day to beat Juli Inkster in a playoff. Mochrie will defend her title March 25-28 at Mission Hills Country Club in Rancho Mirage.

Mochrie said that her victory in the Dinah Shore tournament set the tone for the rest of the year.

“It showed that if you just hang in there and give yourself a chance, you don’t have to dominate from Hole 1 to 72,” she said.

Mochrie scrambled to her victories in 1992.

“I either came from behind, or was tied,” she said. “I don’t think I had the outright lead going into the final round of any tournament I won last year.”

Mochrie, who lives in Osprey, Fla., is an intense competitor, perhaps too intense earlier in her career. Her temper would flare on the course.

“I guess it did,” she said. “I think all self-driven athletes have that where they won’t tolerate anything less than perfection.”

She said that Doug convinced her that she was hurting her game by trying too hard.

Dottie and Doug travel the golf circuit with their dog, Shank, a chow. His picture is on her golf bag.

“He’s good for my mental part,” Mochrie said. “He doesn’t care if I shoot 80.”

Mochrie started playing golf when she was 7 while growing up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She said her father, Don Pepper, was a major influence on her career.

Pepper played major league baseball briefly and was on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1968. Mochrie would like to appear on the cover someday, which she believes would make her and her father the first father-daughter combination to be so publicized in the magazine.

Mochrie said she she doesn’t have any specific monetary goals.

“But I have some statistical goals,” she said. “I feel if I can accomplish improvements in areas of putting and bunker play, everything else will take care of itself. I’m hitting it so close now and hitting so many greens.” In five seasons on the LPGA tour, Mochrie has earned more than than $1.67 million and six victories. She reached the million-dollar plateau in only four years and 18 days, a record for the women’s tour.

She is proud of victories in two unofficial events last year, the Wendy’s Three-Tour Challenge, and the JCPenney Classic, a competition pairing LPGA and PGA Tour players.

In the Wendy’s Challenge event, Mochrie teamed with Lopez and Patty Sheehan to beat a men’s team of Raymond Floyd, Fred Couples and Tom Kite and a senior team of Jack Nicklaus, Larry Laoretti and Chi Chi Rodriguez.

She also teamed with Dan Forsman to win the JCPenney event, an alternate-shot format.

“That was one of my most thrilling wins all year,” Mochrie said. “It was our fifth try. We hadn’t done well previously.”

Mochrie has been on the LPGA tour only since 1988, but she is part of a group of young players that includes Meg Mallon, Liselotte Neumann, Laura Davies, and Danielle Ammaccapane, who figure to be dominant in women’s golf for years to come.

As for Mochrie’s game now, she said:

“I’m hitting it great. I’ve had more kick-ins for birdies on par-fives. As I’ve gotten longer, I’ve left myself in a position where I’m pitching into par-fives instead of hitting full shots.”

Golf Notes

The 15th annual Trojan-SCrambler tournament will be held Monday at Lakeside Golf Club. . . . Pepperdine will play host to the Wave Classic on Monday at Sherwood Country Club in Thousand Oaks. . . . The Orange County Sports Hall of Fame/Freedom Bowl golf challenge will be held Monday at Alta Vista CC in Placentia. . . . The Ross Becker Classic is set for Monday at North Ranch Country Club in Westlake Village and will benefit H.E.L.P., which operates schools and other programs for the mentally and physically disabled. . . . The Mickey Rooney Celebrity-Am tournament to benefit the Los Angeles Mission will be held March 22 at Brookside Golf Course.

Jerry Barber, 76, and his son Tom, 50, will compete in the GTE West Classic March 5-7 at the Ojai Valley Inn and Country Club. They are the first father-son combination to compete in a Senior PGA Tour event. . . . The fifth annual American Cancer Society celebrity tournament will be held Monday at MountainGate CC. The tournament is dedicated to Chuck Connors, the late actor. . . . The John McKay Invitational tournament will be held March 7-8 at Palm Valley CC in Palm Desert.

The Lompoc City championship is scheduled April 3-4 at the La Purisima course. . . . PGA Tour pro Payne Stewart and designer Cal Olson are collaborating on a new public 18-hole course in Fullerton’s East Coyote Hills. Ground will be broken this spring with play set for late 1994.