GOLF : Winner’s Heart Sinks, but the Ball Doesn’t

It was early in her round, and Cindy Schreyer knew she had a chance to win for the first time in her career.

The splash, the skip and the save might have convinced her.

Schreyer made a three-foot par putt on the final hole Monday to beat Betsy King by a stroke in the rain-delayed LPGA Chicago Sun Times Challenge, but it might have been as early as the seventh hole that the tournament turned.

Schreyer, playing her second shot on the 387-yard par-four hole, hit the ball right at the water and got “really lucky” when it hit the water, skipped twice and landed safely on solid ground. The skip saved Schreyer two strokes.

“My heart sank,” Schreyer said of her first reaction. “I didn’t get enough club on top of the ball and it skipped. I think the top spin caused it to skip.

“It was a great break, a lucky break for me. I hit a poor drive and I was able to get a four-footer to save par.”

Schreyer, the NCAA champion at Georgia in 1984, closed with a one-under 71 to finish with a 272 total, 16 under par on the White Eagle Club course.

Schreyer, whose previous best showing this year was a 24th-place finish at the Dinah Shore, collected $71,250, more than she had ever earned in a year on the tour. Her previous best for a year was $63,000 in 1991.

The conclusion of the tournament had been postponed from Sunday because of rain and a forecast for tornadoes.

King, who collected $46,219 for her fourth runner-up finish, is winless in her last 20 tournaments.

“Maybe it’s destiny going against me,” said King, who has 28 victories--two shy of an automatic Hall of Fame berth--since November.