Golfer’s Stay in Town Works Out Just Rosie

Call it fate.

Jill Briles-Hinton arrived in town for the Los Angeles Women’s Championship at roughly the same time that her favorite talk-show host, Rosie O’Donnell, arrived for two weeks’ of tapings at Universal Studios Hollywood.

A 10-year veteran of the LPGA tour, Briles-Hinton spent several days angling for tickets. She even called O’Donnell’s production office in New York and offered to give the television personality an on-air golf lesson.

The producers told her: “Send us a tape.”

But when the golfer discussed her spurned advances in The Times on Thursday, studio executives in Burbank sprang to action. Calls were made, as sometimes happens in the industry.

“I went to put on my shoes, to go out to the putting green, and I saw this note taped to my locker,” she said. “I was like, ‘Holy cow.’ ”

The message explained that two tickets were waiting for her at the sound stage. Briles-Hinton immediately sought her friend and fellow fan, Laurie Brower, but Brower was still playing in Thursday’s pro-am.

So she handed her young son, Bert, to her husband and offered the second ticket to a tour staff member. Once at the studio, the two were promised an audience with O’Donnell.

“I usually talk a lot,” Briles-Hinton said. “But I’ll probably be speechless.”

Home-course advantage?: There has been a lot of talk about Emilee Klein’s home-course advantage at Oakmont because her parents are members there, but Thursday Klein admitted a little secret . . . she’s never won a tournament there.

Of course, she’s never played there in a tournament.

“I don’t remember the last time I played 18 holes in a row here,” she said. “I usually come here and goof off. My dad and I would play nine holes in an hour and skip around.”

Blown away: Several tents from the mini-expo set up between the ninth and 10th holes were floating in the Oakmont pool after getting caught by a gust of wind early Thursday.

“It was like a tornado,” said Michael Pfaff, a witness from his booth across the walkway.

It took all afternoon for a work crew, including a scuba diver, to pull the tents out of the pool and reassemble them.

The main leaderboard near the 18th green also tipped over, but workers quickly put it back up.

Familiar faces: Among the amateurs playing in Thursday’s pro-am were comedian-actor Buddy Hackett, L.A. County Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky and LPGA Commissioner Jim Ritts.

Hackett played with pro Jill McGill and topped his opening drive, which barely made it to the edge of the first fairway.

Ritts and Yaroslavsky played in the group behind Hackett and McGill with professional Sherri Steinhauer.

Also playing in the group was Quentin Clopton, a 15-year-old from Los Angeles who is a member of the LPGA’s Urban Youth Golf program.

“Man, this is horrible,” Clopton said after a poor start. “I’m really nervous.”

Parking update: Though no shuttle service is available from Glendale College for today’s first round, parking will be permitted along a two-mile section of La Crescenta Boulevard. Parking is generally not allowed on that street, but it will be marked off for the tournament.

Lots at Glendale Boulevard and Mountain Street will be used on Saturday and Sunday, and spectators will be shuttled to and from the tournament free of charge.