GOLF / DINAH SHORE : Sheehan Will Try to Rock the Vote

Patty Sheehan is the latest member of the LPGA Hall of Fame, an exclusive club with stringent entrance requirements.

She qualified with her 30th victory last Sunday at Phoenix. Even though she is a a member of the Hall of Fame, joining 12 other players, she said the rules should be revised for admittance.

“The rules have to be changed,” said Sheehan, who will compete today in the $700,000 Nabisco Dinah Shore tournament, the first major event of the year on the women’s tour, at Mission Hills Country Club.

“It’s difficult, shooting for a number of tournaments. I don’t think I’m any better a player winning 30 tournaments than 29 tournaments.

“I think (Hall of Fame selection) should be a vote from our peers. That’s difficult, too, because then you get into a popularity contest. If it’s someone you don’t like, you’re not going to vote for them.

“And I don’t think that would diminish the players who (already) are in the Hall of Fame. I know some of the Hall of Famers think so, but I don’t.”

It is widely accepted that the standards for the LPGA Hall of Fame are the most demanding of any sport.

To qualify, a player must be a member of the LPGA for 10 consecutive years and have 30 victories, two in different major events--as Sheehan did--or 35 victories with one major, or 40 victories.

The waiting list includes Amy Alcott with 29 victories, Betsy King with 28, and Beth Daniel with 27.

Alcott has been at No. 29 since she won the Dinah Shore tournament in 1991 for a record third time.

“Amy and I had a conversation Monday,” Sheehan said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s going to get in. Amy has had some rough problems the last couple of years with her mother dying and some other things.”

When Alcott won the Dinah Shore in 1991, she dragged her caddie and Dinah into the lake bordering the 18th green.

Sheehan said that Alcott might be even more demonstrative if she wins this week.

“If she gets number 30, she may take her clothes off. So you all better be there,” Sheehan joked.

Here is the Hall of Fame list: Patty Berg, 1951; Pat Bradley, 1991; JoAnne Carner, 1982; Sandra Haynie, 1977; Betty Jameson, 1951; Nancy Lopez, 1987; Carol Mann, 1977; Betsy Rawls, 1960; Sheehan, 1993; Louise Suggs, 1951; Kathy Whitworth, 1975; Mickey Wright, 1964, and Babe Didriksen Zaharias, 1951.

Dottie Mochrie, 27, is the defending champion here. She had four victories on the tour last year and was LPGA player of the year.

She won last year’s tournament in a playoff with Juli Inkster. She birdied the 18th hole to tie for the lead, then won on the first extra hole.

Mochrie has six victories in a career that began in 1988.

So to her, the Hall of Fame is still a distant goal. She is aware of the pressure, though, for some of the older players.

Mochrie said that when Alcott was introduced last week in Phoenix, it was announced that she needed only one more victory to qualify for the Hall of Fame.

“I know I wouldn’t want to hear that over and over again,” Mochrie said.

Golf Notes

Five Hall of Fame players are in the field for the tournament--Patty Sheehan, Nancy Lopez, Pat Bradley, JoAnne Carner and Kathy Whitworth. . . . Lopez became a member of the Hall of Fame in 1987 by winning her 35th tournament. “When I won my 35th, I didn’t really expect to because I hadn’t really worked on my game,” she said. “I didn’t think I was ready to win, so I didn’t have time to think about it.” Lopez’s victory total now stands at 46. As for Sheehan’s accomplishment, Lopez said, “You have to put her in the great-player category when you look at her statistics and what she has done.”