It’s Not Quite Way Cool, but a 66 Puts Lindley in the Hunt

At the 14th tee, little Leta Lindley reached for a nine-wood. Yes, a nine-wood. The driver in Lindley’s bag, a 49-inch Callaway, comes up to approximately her neck, looking like an Even Bigger Bertha. A nine-wood feels more natural, particularly in situations where Lindley might otherwise use, say, a four-iron, as on Oakmont’s 156-yard, par-three 14th.

Among those in Lindley’s loyal personal gallery Saturday in Glendale, at the LPGA Los Angeles Women’s Championship, were her mother, Diep, who is Vietnamese, and her personal scorer, Fred Olmstead, who has known Leta back home in Carlsbad since she was 10. They urged her to knock the ball on the green. Her caddie, Matt Plagmann, who is also her husband, was carrying five different woods in their bag. He let Leta have the nine.

Rather than hit the green, her tee shot hit the flagstick. It skipped 12 or 13 feet away. This being her day, though, Lindley knocked it in from there, one of seven birdies in a 66 that put her in contention going into today’s final round, for what would be her first pro championship.

“In the interview room, Leta Lindley,” a tournament official announced, after her round.

“Cool,” Lindley said.

Not being an announcement she had heard very often, Lindley laughed and said, “It’s like you’re announcing the queen.”

Annika Sorenstam, queen of many a tournament and her roommate for a semester at the University of Arizona, continues to be the leader, but Lindley is only four shots back. Having once set an NCAA record for the lowest 54-hole score, Lindley has a shot at her first tour victory if she can come up with another round like Saturday’s.

Beginning on the back nine, Lindley strung together birdies at Nos. 12, 13 and 14. A seven-iron from the fairway of the 370-yard 12th landed six feet from the cup. A tough lie on the next hole didn’t faze Lindley, who knocked a six-iron within 10 feet, then made a nasty putt that broke hard to her right.

Afterward, Lindley struggled to accurately recount her round.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I haven’t done this for a while.”

The birdie at 14 gave her three in a row. Then came the 18th hole--her midpoint Saturday, but where Lindley would love to gain the gallery’s applause today with a 20-foot putt like the one she made for birdie.

Only on the short third hole, after making the turn, did Lindley take a bogey all day. She missed a four-foot putt.

By the end of her round, nobody wanted to distract Lindley, even to whisper that her last putt could be worth a 65, tying the course record. She joked later, “I wish somebody would have tackled me before I hit it and told me. Maybe I would have made it.”

A 65 would have been the best score of Lindley’s life.

Leta--pronounced “Lee-ta”--stands an Ian Woosnam-esque 5 feet 4 inches and weighs 125 pounds. Physically, she has never been confused on the LPGA tour with a Laura Davies or a Beth Daniel, but then again, Patty Sheehan isn’t what you would call tall, and she’s won 35 tournaments.

“I don’t expect to hit it 300 yards,” Lindley said. “I go with what I’ve got.”

What her game has includes her husband, Plagmann, of whom she says with affection, “Now don’t put ‘Lindley’ down by mistake.”

Plagmann takes his caddying seriously enough that Lindley carries a smiley-face keychain with her on the course, simply because it bears a happier look than the one on Matt’s face during a round.

They met in college, where Lindley also spent time as a teammate and roommate of Sorenstam’s. They shared “a room the size of a cardboard box” until Sorenstam moved out, and were too busy doing homework to spend much time together socially.

Now the two former Pac-10 players find themselves among the leaders in Oakmont’s pack, heading into today’s final round.

Cool.