Only a Dip in Pond Can Cool Off Red-Hot Pepper

That pond circling the 18th green at Mission Hills Country Club? Dottie Pepper could freeze the thing over with a single glance, but that’s not what she did Sunday. She jumped in.

Actually, Pepper waded into the water, then fell over backward with a big splash, which seemed only fitting after the act she put on.

There was a lot of jumping going on and Pepper’s plunge wasn’t even the most impressive. No, that distinction belonged to her golf ball, which Pepper sent airborne from the 16th fairway with a seven-iron, 144 yards from the flagstick, watched it bounce twice on the green and roll merrily into the hole for her second eagle in two days.

Pepper whooped, raised both arms and stood there in shock, as if she didn’t know exactly what to do. Meg Mallon did. She took a white towel from her bag and waved it.

“Time to surrender,” Mallon said.

And with good reason, too, basically because the tournament was over right there. Pepper’s lead, which was down to two shots after 13 holes, was now six and a few minutes later had grown to seven when Mallon bogeyed the 16th.

Yeah, it was over, all right. A seven-shot lead with two holes to play?

Pepper probably could have put her clubs away and just steered the ball into the hole by the sheer power of her will and still come out on top. As it was, she finished the final round with a six-under-par 66 and finished the tournament at a 19 under, which is both a tournament record and a record for an LPGA major. She ended up beating Mallon by six strokes.

Afterward, it was time to hit the water, which provided just about the only surprise of the day.

“It was a lot colder than I thought it was going to be,” Pepper said.

Then there was the fact that she had won . . . again . . . finally, for the first time since 1996. Pepper had a difficult time maintaining her composure talking about that.

“This is just incredible,” she said. “To be able to come back and win for the first time in three years and win at this place is pretty darned special.”

There was little suspense the last day, except to find out who would finish second. It turned out to be Mallon, who began the day three shots behind Pepper, closed with a three-under 69 and wound up with a 13-under 275.

Mallon said she couldn’t feel too badly.

“I thought I was playing pretty good golf and I lost by what, six?” she said.

“What can you do? There wasn’t much.”

Neither Kelly Robbins nor Juli Inkster mustered a charge. Robbins had four birdies, four bogeys and finished with a 72 to finish fourth. Inkster needed a birdie on the final hole to end with a 74 and sixth place.

Karrie Webb’s 66 moved her into third place at eight-under 280 and Charlotta Sorenstam’s final round of 66 was good enough for fifth place, one shot behind Robbins.

Nobody really got close to Pepper.

“I mean I saw her make two eagles, a chip-in, about 12 up and downs,” Mallon said. “That’s pretty incredible golf the last two days of a major championship.”

If Pepper had played any better, they might have been forced to change the name of the tournament. She wound up with two eagles, 19 birdies and only four bogeys. Imagine the headline possibilities: “A Seasoned Pepper Cleans Up at Shore.”

Hey, that’s what happened.

Pepper’s 19-under par breaks the LPGA major record of 18-under by Brandie Burton at last year’s du Maurier.

Pepper’s 19 under is a Dinah Shore record by four shots, and her 72-hole total of 269 also breaks the old tournament record by four shots. Amy Alcott set both previous marks in her 1991 victory.

It was Pepper who finished second to Alcott in 1991--eight shots behind.

“We all thought her score was so far out of reach,” Pepper said.

At 33 and in her 12th year as a professional, Pepper also moved closer to the LPGA Hall of Fame.

She has 19 points under the new qualifying system and needs eight more to reach 27 to gain automatic entry into the Hall. Pepper has 15 victories (two of them majors), one player-of-the-year award and one Vare Trophy.

Pepper also managed to remove an unwanted item from her resume--an inability to bag a second major. She won the Nabisco Dinah Shore in 1992, but had only one top 10 finish in a major since 1993--a tie for sixth at the 1995 LPGA Championship.

Last year, Pepper rebounded from an off year in 1997 when she won just $292,652, her worst money-making year since 1990. Pepper didn’t win, but she made $539,792 and had eight top five finishes in 1998.

Pepper began with back-to-back birdies, saved par with an up-and-down at No. 3, chipped in from 45 feet at No. 14 when Mallon three-putted for bogey. It was a two-shot swing at the wrong time after Mallon had moved to within two strokes a hole earlier.

When Pepper holed out from the fairway, all that was left was for her to take that little dip, add up her winnings and feel good about herself.

“Not too many words work now,” she said.

Mallon said, “What a way to get out of a slump.”

Or to get back in the swim of things.

Final Results

The top scores after Sunday’s final round of play (Complete scores, Page 12):

$1-MILLION NABISCO DINAH SHORE--Par 72

Dottie Pepper: 70-66-67-66--269 -19

Meg Mallon: 66-69-71-69--275 -13

Karrie Webb: 73-71-70-66--280 -8

Kelly Robbins: 69-73-67-72--281 -7

Charlotta Sorenstam: 72-68-76-66--282 -6

Juli Inkster: 72-66-71-74--283 -5

Catriona Matthew: 72-73-69-70--284 -4

Annika Sorenstam: 70-73-71-70--284 -4

Janice Moodie: 69-68-75-72--284 -4