Hurst Wins, but It Hasn’t Soaked in Yet

From start to finish, Pat Hurst had the Nabisco Dinah Shore covered like a flood, so why was she so timid about a little water when it was over?

Hurst did the champion’s dip into the pond at No. 18, all right . . . all the way up to her ankles.

For four rounds, that’s sure not the way Hurst treated Mission Hills, which she basically stomped on with both feet. The 28-year-old from San Leandro won her first major title and completed a wire-to-wire race to the finish line Sunday when her closing round of 71 and seven-under 281 was worth $150,000 and a one-shot victory over Helen Dobson.

Hurst, who can’t swim, clearly knows a thing or two about the front-running business.

Starting with Thursday’s first round, Hurst owned at least part of the lead every day and learned to perfect the role of moving target.

She spent the back nine of the last round watching her closest challengers drop out, then nervously rolled in a five-foot putt for par on the 18th to end it.

That was the easy part. Hurst raised her arm in triumph, then had to be convinced to continue the winner’s tradition of leaping into the pond at No. 18. Not until John Manfredi, a Nabisco vice president, held her hand for encouragement did Hurst, a non-swimmer, stick her feet into the murky water.

Afterward, her shoes were soggy, but that seemed to be the worst thing wrong with Hurst.

“I’m feeling pretty good right now,” she said. “I guess the pressure’s off now. I’ve won a major. I guess I can’t ask for anything more right now.”

Dobson, who began the day five shots back, finished with a five-under 67 and the biggest payday of her six-year career--$93,093.

The 27-year-old from England basically came out of nowhere. She had missed the cut her other four times here and had only one top-10 finish in the last five years.

Dobson even rescued par on the last hole after driving under some trees. She hooked a four-iron through a five-foot gap between the trees, knocked a three- wood to 15-feet and two-putted for par.

She knew it wasn’t going to be enough, though.

“I always thought I was going to finish second,” said Dobson, who never checked the leaderboard.

“They were so far ahead of me, it wasn’t even worth looking,” she said.

Helen Alfredsson shot a 70 and wound up tied for third, two shots back, with Laura Davies, who came on fast with a 68. Liselotte Neumann finished three shots behind Hurst after her 73 and Donna Andrews moved into a tie with Neumann for fifth with her 70.

For a while, Hurst’s ankle-dipping was hardly a certainty. When she bogeyed No. 7 after three-putting, Hurst found herself in a three-way tie with Neumann and Alfredsson.

Hurst and Neumann birdied the ninth hole to stay even, but Alfredsson dropped out with a bogey at No. 10. When Neumann dropped a shot with a bogey on the 10th, Hurst was off and running and basically uncatchable.

Alfredsson played the last four holes in seven over for the week.

“I’m going to be playing those holes over and over again,” she said.

Hurst drew a semi-tough lie on the 18th when her third shot stopped right next to the fringe. That forced her to use her wedge like a putter and she rolled the ball five feet past the hole.

Hurst said her tactic was to pretend that putt was for birdie to win it. The strategy worked. Once Hurst steered that last putt into the hole, the former teaching pro at La Quinta was officially a different player than the one who quit the mini-tours in 1994 and put her clubs away because she didn’t like golf.

The former U.S. Amateur and NCAA champion had failed twice to get her LPGA card and she felt awful about it.

“My frame of mind was horrible,” Hurst said. “That’s why I quit. I was not happy playing golf. It was always the same question: ‘Why aren’t you on the tour?’ ”

Hurst knew she needed to put the clubs down when she had a nine-shot lead on her way to winning a mini-tour event at Visalia and she didn’t want to even be there.

“That told me something,” she said.

But after teaching golf at La Quinta, Hurst felt refreshed. She qualified for the Tour, she won a tournament last year and now she’s won a major.

Hurst’s frame of mind right now? Let’s just say it’s a lot different than it was that day at Visalia.

“I’m on Cloud Nine,” she said.

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How They Finished

Pat Hurst: 68-72-70-71--281---7

Helen Dobson: 70-74-71-67--282---6

Laura Davies: 75-70-70-68--283---5

Helen Alfredsson: 70-73-70-70--283---5

Donna Andrews: 71-72-71-70--284---4

Liselotte Neumann: 69-71-71-73--284---4

Annika Sorenstam: 76-71-69-70--286---2

Karrie Webb: 71-72-70-73--286---2

Dottie Pepper: 73-72-74-68--287---1

Sherri Steinhauer: 69-76-71-71--287---1

Amy Fruhwirth: 73-71-73-71--288--E

Dawn Coe-Jones: 70-72-74-72--288--E