Walters, Turner Tied for Lead at 67 : Five Others Two Strokes Back After First Round at Los Coyotes

Lisa Walters, who has missed more cuts than she has made this season, had it all going her way Thursday morning, taking the lead with a five-under-par 67 at the LPGA’s Nippon Travel--MBS golf tournament in Buena Park.

That was the good news. The not-so-good news is that the player who caught her later in the afternoon is Sherri Turner, the leading money winner in 1988.

Turner and Walters share a two-stroke lead over five players at Los Coyotes Country Club. Pat Bradley, Amy Alcott, Jody Rosenthal, Patty Rizzo--who missed a one-foot putt on 18----and Jill Briles all shot 69. The par 72 course is 6,350 yards.

Turner missed the cut last week in Seattle and showed up here ready to do some work.

“She came in here Monday and started beating balls,” said Jean Darden, Turner’s caddy. “She practiced and practiced.”

Turner was on the practice range after her round Thursday, still hitting in the 90-degree heat.

She is so determined to play well this week that she also bowed out of the pro-am Wednesday so she could practice.

Turner has won once this year, in the third week of the season at Hawaii. She is eighth on the earnings list with $187,742, but has fallen off the level of consistency she displayed in 1988, when she had 17 top-10 finishes.

She has had seven top-10 finishes this season. This is her final tour stop. She almost went home to Greenville, S.C., after missing the cut in Seattle, and had even made plane reservations, but changed her mind at the last minute.

“This is the last (official) tournament she is playing this year, and she said ‘Let’s have some fun,’ ” Darden said.

Turner had an eagle on the 12th hole, a 455-yard par five. She also had five birdies and two bogeys.

“I have been so frustrated (this season),” Turner said. “I’ve been putting a lot of pressure on myself to play well, and I just haven’t. But (today) I felt things were going real well.”

Walters, in her fifth year on the tour, grew up in British Columbia but attended Florida State, where she was an All-American in 1981.

Her best career finish was a tie for third in 1987. She has never led a tournament.

In 22 starts this season, she has missed the cut 13 times, finished in the money nine times, and withdrew once--when her game was in such disrepair that she walked off the course at the Boston tournament.

Last week in Seattle, however, she played her best golf of the year and finished tied for 15th.

“I started putting really well last week,” she said.

Having landed at the top of the leader board for the first time in her LPGA career, Walters discovered she is very comfortable there.

“Some players say they are more comfortable a few shots off the lead, that it’s easier to strike from behind and things like that,” she said. “I feel very good where I am. I wouldn’t trade with anybody.”

Walters’ performance lent no support to others’ concerns about the condition of the greens at the Los Coyotes Country Club course.

She ran down putts of 30, 15, and 10 feet along with a couple of four-footers and a two-footer for birdies during her round, which was played during the morning. She made only one bogey--at the 149-yard seventh hole, when she hit her tee shot 15 feet over the green. Her chip left her with a slippery downhill chip that ran seven feet past the cup. She made the putt coming back.

Players had been concerned coming into the tournament that the greens, which had been damaged by a fungus this summer, would be difficult to handle.

“The greens weren’t a problem at all,” Walters said. “They were faster then they had been during my practice round Tuesday.

“I think a good putter isn’t bothered by the type of greens,” she said. “Good putters can putt on anything.”

The greens became bumpier as the afternoon rounds were played.

“All of us as a whole have putted well, considering the stress conditions Mother Nature has put (the greens) under,” said Bradley, one of five players at 69.

Rosenthal, also in the group at three-under, gave her game and the course good reviews.

“I’m playing more solid, more consistent and the course played well today,” Rosenthal said. “I thought the greens were putting pretty well.”

Rosenthal also played early in the morning.

Rizzo, who won at San Diego this year, was stuck in the second-place group after missing a one-foot putt at 18 that would have put her alone in third place.

“I changed putters for this tournament because the greens are slower and I forgot to make an adjustment for it when I lined up to putt,” she said.

“The greens are real different from what we have been playing, but they’re not all that bad.”

Alcott, who last played this course 19 years ago in a 10-and-under division tournament, birdied two of the last three holes to gain her share of third place.

“I don’t think the scores will be all that low, but seven-under could win,” she said.

Cindy Rarick, who finished second last week, shot two-under 70.

“I feel good,” she said. “If I shoot 70 every day, I have a good chance to be there Sunday.”

Rarick, a good wind player, likes the fact that the wind comes up in the afternoon here. She has an afternoon tee time today.

Nancy Lopez opened with a 73. Beth Daniel shot a two-over 74.