Sorenstam Misses Cut, but Here Comes Lopez

The coronation of Annika Sorenstam was canceled Friday because of the lack of a queen, and in its place the USGA offered a real, live golf tournament, starring Alison Nicholas in a daze and Liselotte Neumann and Nancy Lopez as ships that collide on the 18th green.

Nicholas, a diminutive Brit, got up before the roosters, had a spot of tea, then shot a five-under-par 66, giving her a 136 and a one-shot lead over Neumann, Lopez and Kelly Robbins at the U.S. Women’s Open’s midway point.

That’s tough to do with your eyes shut.

“I’m not good in the mornings, so I had to really shake myself,” Nicholas said.

Making birdie on the opening hole did that, and then she added four more in a bogey-less round, made easier because she hit 14 Pumpkin Ridge Golf Club greens in regulation.

The Sorenstam story line shifted from “Can she win three Opens in a row?” to “Can she make the cut?” and the answer to both was “no.”

Instead, she became the first woman to win consecutive Opens and miss the cut in her quest for No. 3.

Sorenstam’s second-round 73 was four shots better than her first-round 77, but it was three shots worse than the 147 cut line, three over par. Her Friday round included a double bogey on No. 13, when her seven-iron approach went through the green and into an environmentally protected area for a one-shot penalty.

“I knew I needed a very good round,” Sorenstam said. “I started at plus-six, and I knew I needed to get to plus-two for today, and maybe that’s a lot of pressure to start a round with.

“I’m disappointed. I wish I could have played better. It’s a slap. I haven’t missed a cut in a long time, and I really don’t know what to do on weekends.”

It was the first cut she has missed since the Jamie Farr Classic in her rookie year on the LPGA Tour, 1995, 61 events in a row.

While Sorenstam faltered, The Other Swede, Neumann, shifted her game into high gear--and then hit the wall.

Neumann, the first-round leader by one shot, opened Friday as the odd woman out, with birdies on No. 1, 3, 5 and 7, and a front-side 33. She was eight under and leading up to the 16th tee, where she hooked her tee shot.

She finished bogey-bogey-bogey worrying about it.

“I think I got just really uncomfortable after that, got really scared and left my next two drives to the right,” Neumann said.

While Neumann was struggling, Lopez was watching in the next group in her rebuilt body. She will tell you she is 152 pounds and a size 10, marked down from 190 and a size 14-plus, but she wouldn’t acknowledge she’s 40 years old if you held a five-iron to her head.

“I’m not 40 yet,” Lopez said to someone who attended her 40th birthday party, Jan. 7.

Her new look came about because “I tried on my pair of ‘14’ shorts and I couldn’t get into them,” she said.

That was around her 39th birthday, when she was thinking seriously of giving up golf, which was already giving up her. “I was really so bored with the way I was playing and I wasn’t enjoying it,” she said. “I wasn’t having fun, and that’s what I always said I would do. I would play if I was enjoying it and having fun.”

Mainly, she was having more fun being a mom of three, because snacks with the kids sure beats chasing a golf ball.

“At that time in January [1996], when I was going to my first tournament, I just all of a sudden said, ‘You know, I’ve got to do something. I hate this. I don’t feel good. I’m so tired by the 15th hole,’ and that wasn’t any fun for me.”

The veggies-and-exercise program administered by her personal trainer is obviously paying off, because by the 15th hole Friday she was two under par and by the 18th, she was minus-five.

Lopez made birdie putts of 10 feet on Nos. 16 and 17 and a five-footer on the par-five 18th, her putter finally warming after she hit 17 greens in regulation en route to her 68.

Her tour up the 18th fairway was greeted by cheers of “Nancy, Nancy, Nancy,” that brought “a few chills up and down my spine,” Lopez said.

But it did not bring her warm Open memories, because she doesn’t have any. She is the distaff Sam Snead, having won 48 tournaments, but none of them a U.S. Open.

Notes

Susie McAllister withdrew because of a rapid heartbeat after a first-round 82. McAllister’s heart stopped beating briefly twice during Thursday’s round and she had to be treated by paramedics during play. McAllister, 49, of Rancho Mirage, said she first experienced the problem, known as “runaway heart,” a couple of months ago.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. WOMEN’S OPEN

(Through Second Round)

Alison Nicholas: -6

Nancy Lopez: -5

Kelly Robbins: -5

Liselotte Neumann: -5

Juli Inkster: -4

Deb Richard: -4

Dawn Coe-Jones: -3

Chris Johnson: -2

Joan Pitcock: -2

* COMPLETE SCORES C10