Hurst Leads, but That’s Not the Half of It

Anybody seen Karrie Webb? You know, Australian, wears a cap, shades, wins all the time.

And Annika Sorenstam? Swede, wears a visor, shades, wins all the time.

Actually, there was a Sorenstam sighting on Friday at Mission Hills, where it’s halfway through the Nabisco Championship and everything you know is wrong.

Unless Pat Hurst suddenly swerves out of the lead and drives her cart into the lake at the 18th hole, the big news at the LPGA’s first major of the year isn’t about who’s leading, it’s about who isn’t.

Most notably, that would be Webb, last year’s player of the year, who is seven shots back after a 72, and Sorenstam, this year’s player of the year, so far, who managed to creep back to within four shots of the lead after her round of 70.

Afterward, Sorenstam said she felt fortunate, since she knew early that Hurst was smacking Mission Hills around with a 68.

“I didn’t want to fall too far behind,” Sorenstam said. “But I didn’t put too much pressure on myself. I was patient.”

Meanwhile, Webb’s patience is in short supply. She didn’t begin the tournament in a very good mood and it hasn’t improved much because she’s worn out after nine weeks of tournaments.

“But I thought I’d be able to hold it together for one more week,” she said. “The swing I thought I had comes and goes. You really should be able to shoot some good scores out there, but it’s been hard to get anything going.”

There is only one tactic left, Webb said.

“Have a big weekend,” she said.

That’s a good idea for everyone chasing Hurst, a cast that includes Carin Koch, who finished her 69 in a breeze and closed to within one shot of Hurst at five-under 139.

Koch began with a bogey when she drove into the rough on the first hole, but she made no more bogeys and missed no more fairways. The 30-year-old Swede who lives in Scottsdale, Ariz., hasn’t won in seven years on the LPGA Tour, but her confidence has not wavered.

“I think I have the game that it takes this weekend,” she said.

Sorenstam, Dottie Pepper, Se Ri Pak and Akiko Fukushima are at two-under 142, four shots behind Hurst. Only 10 players in the field of 96 are under par after 36 holes.

Pak’s 69 was four shots better than her opening 73. How to credit such an improvement isn’t easy, she said.

“The golf game is very silly, you know, sometimes,” she said.

No one is going to argue with that. The course is not getting any easier, with the four-inch rough and greens drying out. As Sorenstam said, there aren’t too many opportunities to make up ground out there.

“You can’t even think like that,” she said.

The cut was at seven over and left 73 players for the weekend at Mission Hills.

Hurst is not unfamiliar with Mission Hills, a course she first played in 1987 as an amateur at San Jose State. And 12 years later at Missions Hills, Hurst won the Nabisco Championship. It stands as her only major victory, although she appears to be on the right track for one more.

“It doesn’t feel like enough,” Hurst said of her one-shot lead. “Out here, anything can happen with two rounds left.”

That something is happening to Hurst at all is significant, mainly because she once quit the game in frustration. She worked as a teaching pro at La Quinta Country Club in 1993. Bob Rosburg, among others, thought enough of her game to collect money from other club members and stake her to an advance to help out on her pro expenses.

Hurst turned pro in 1995 and made believers out of her backers, winning more than $2.24 million in prize money and posting three tournament victories.

Friday, the stocky 31-year-old reached two of the four par-five holes with her three-wood and birdied them both, prompting her to admit that length helps.

“I think that is where I can make up a lot of shots, versus being a little bit of a shorter hitter . . . and if I knock it in the rough, I still have a chance to get it out onto the green,” Hurst said.

With 13 victories and three major titles in the last two years, Webb obviously has the stuff to get it done, but maybe not the gas.

“I could have had a lower round, but I didn’t get it,” she said. “It’s not going to get any easier, I guess.”