Davies’ Strategy to Keep from Using Woods is Ironclad : Golf: Playing without a driver, Davies has experienced success at the Inamori Classic.

Put a driver in Laura Davies’ hands, and at times it appears as if all of America is within her reach.

“I can hit it straight a long ways and I can hit it in some pretty wicked places, too,” said Davies while preparing for today’s opening round in the Inamori Classic at StoneRidge Country Club. “I bring along my passport in case I knock it over the border sometimes.

“I was in contention here two years ago and then I had a nine on No. 6. Two balls out of bounds. Driver, driver. One went right, one went left. Hit them very well--real well, but the trouble was I hit them about four streets over.”

Put a two-iron in Laura Davies’ hands, and well you’re probably still away.

“I can keep my two-iron up with most players,” said Davies, who makes her home in England. “And last week I tried a zero-iron for the first time--that new one Davis Love just started using--and hit a couple of shots I’ve never hit in my life. I hit it 260--and stuck it pin high. I can almost guarantee it’s going to go straight and gives me at least another 20 yards on my two-iron.”

Armed only with irons a year ago, Davies finished four strokes in front of runners-up Lynn Connelly and Judy Dickinson on StoneRidge’s hilly layout with an 11-under 277 to collect the $60,000 first prize.

Davies will keep the covers on her driver and three-wood again this week and will pack that new zero-iron as she defends her title in the $425,000 tournament.

“Winning here last year using only irons got me to thinking if I can beat the best players going with irons only, maybe it’s not such a bad idea,” Davies said. “It’s really dictated by the golf course. Why hit driver and sand-iron on a 360-yard par four, when I can guarantee a two-iron and then a nine-iron into the green. I might hit driver and then have to chip out of trouble.”

After harnessing her power here last year, she went on to Italy and posted an irons-only victory on the European Tour. Traveling back and forth, she finished the LPGA campaign with $200,830 and five top-10 finishes in limited play.

“The big hitting allows me to hit an iron off the tee, and hopefully with the others, their drivers aren’t as accurate as my two-iron,” Davies said. “I think it’s smart golf rather than just getting up there and leathering a driver.”

But she loves to wallop the ball, and under the right circumstances she can be swayed into hauling out the lumber.

“I’ve got people telling me, ‘Come on, hit the driver,’ ” Davies said. “In Chicago I had driven this hole in the first round, but I didn’t feel it was a particularly clever shot to try again. I took an iron and the crowd was yelling for me to take another go at the hole with my driver.

“I put the iron away and hit my driver--nearly out of bounds.”

Davies, who has lost more than 40 pounds in the past year, stood in contention at the start of last week’s final round in the Hawaiian Ladies Open, but finished tied for 25th after stumbling to a 75.

“Right now making the cut is the first priority,” Davies said. “I’ve learned a lot playing over here. In Europe the standards are very high now, but when I started there weren’t as many good golfers. You could get away with a nine on the first day, still make the cut, have a good weekend and finish in the top five.

“You have a nine over here and you’re gonna miss the cut. I’ve had 10s; it’s easy. I can do it. But I’m doing a better job now of getting the ball around the course and playing every day.”

In addition to being the longest hitter on the tour, Davies might appear intimidating in stature and serious in purpose, but that’s on the golf course. A playful Davies owns and races a greyhound, plays snooker, drives a BMW and lost a chance to play softball here when the rains came.

While many of her compatriots left Hawaii to prepare for this week’s tournament, Davies took off for Las Vegas. “You don’t want it to get boring out here,” she said. “Won a bit of money.”

She would win more money staying in this country throughout the golf season, but she continues to play on the European Tour.

“For some of us, we owe the European Tour what we got today,” she said. “If there hadn’t been a European Tour I would never have considered turning professional.”

She left high school to turn professional when she was 16, and her headmaster’s parting words were: “You can’t make any money at golf.”

Her $617,052 in career earnings on the LPGA Tour the past five years do not include money won from 11 victories on the European Tour and two more wins in Japan.

While normally accompanied by her brother and caddy, Tony, Davies will hook up with caddy Paul Clifford, who worked with her here last year, and will pursue another $63,750 in first-place prize money.

But unlike big-hitting John Daly, who went to the woods a week ago in the Buick Invitational at Torrey Pines and missed the cut, there will be no grand display of power from Davies.

“Under average conditions I can hit the ball 270 to 280 yards with my driver; I have hit it well over 300 at various times,” she said. “But I don’t say it works as an advantage, because basically every week is a putting contest anyway. The standard has gone up so high.

“Now I have to walk onto every tee thinking what’s the best club to put the ball in position, where with most players it’s just a case of hitting the driver as far as they can hit it. I like smacking it and I’m sure people miss me slugging drives about, but I got to pay the mortgage somehow.”

INAMORI CLASSIC

Site: StoneRidge Country Club.

Purse: $425,000

Tee times: Thursday and Friday, beginning at 6:45; Saturday and Sunday, beginning at 8

Ticket prices: Season ticket: $20. Daily tickets Thursday and Friday $7. Daily tickets Saturday and Sunday $12.

Parking: Free

Defending champion: Laura Davies

Top contenders: Meg Mallon, Amy Alcott, Shelley Hamlin, Missie Berteotti, Colleen Walker, Sally Little, Nancy Scranton, Dawn Coe, Kris Tschetter