GOLF / LPGA AT LOS COYOTES : Tatum Rounds Up a 66 for 1-Shot Lead

Tani Tatum said she has gone from home on the range to home on the range.

Tatum grew up on a cattle ranch in Bishop. Now she roams the golf course, this week the Los Coyotes layout.

Tatum, who has been on the LPGA tour since 1990, shot her best competitive round, a six-under-par 66, Thursday to take the opening-round lead in the Los Coyotes Classic at Buena Park.

Hollis Stacy and rookie Kelly Holland, with 67s, are one stroke behind Tatum.

Tatum, 32, learned to play golf on a course that is part of her uncle’s alfalfa farm in Bishop.

“I learned how to hit it far, hit in anywhere,” Tatum said. “It’s very flat and wide open.”

The course is now known as the Bishop Country Club.

Tatum had a bogey-free round Thursday.

Just like on the alfalfa farm, Tatum was long off the tee and, even though she said her iron play was merely “acceptable,” she hit 17 greens.

Tatum has struggled this year. She has missed the cut 19 times in 29 events, with her best finish a tie for ninth in a tournament last May in Virginia.

“It’s been a very frustrating year,” she said.

She shot an opening-round 68 two week weeks ago at Portland, Ore., only to follow it with an 86 to miss the cut.

“Hopefully, I learned something from that,” Tatum said. “I just got too wrapped up in what I was doing.”

Tatum said she has to have a “cowboy personality” on the course to be successful.

“You know, ‘Go get ‘em. You ride ‘em and go,’ ” she said. “I’ve been trying to play like the others--methodical and grinding. My approach should be with a lot more lightheartedness--carefree and aggressiveness and not try to be somebody else.”

Tatum didn’t play golf in high school or college at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. Instead, she was on the rodeo team.

“I was an agriculture major in college until they tried to teach me how to feed a cow,” Tatum said. “I knew very well how to do it, so I switched majors.”

Tatum said that while she was growing up she broke both of her elbows riding horses. It was then that she decided golf was safer.

She said the ranch that she grew up in has been in her family for five generations, adding that they breed cattle, quarter horses and “anything that lives.”

Tatum played in Asia, Australia and Europe before joining the LPGA tour.

Stacy, 38, had five birdies in her round of 67.

She had a more memorable round last week in the Safeco Classic at Kent, Wash., where she shot a 62, equaling an LPGA record shared by three others.

“I borrowed Judy Dickinson’s putter for the 62,” Stacy said. “Now I’m using a duplicate of that putter.”

Brandie Burton, 20, one of five players at 68, is playing in only her third tournament since an injury to her right wrist in July forced her to be inactive from the tour for eight weeks.

She had the wrist in the cast, but surgery isn’t planned.

“I don’t have any pain now,” said the second-year pro from Rialto, “but my game is only about 80% since the injury.

“It’s amazing how quickly it leaves you when you take time off. Hopefully, if this (wrist injury) is the worst thing that happens to me in my career, then it will be a great career.”

Golf Notes

Kelly Holland, a graduate of Michigan State, has missed 16 cuts in 18 tournaments. “I’ve been hitting the ball well all year,” said Holland, 23, “and the putting finally came together.” She had only 26 putts in her round. . . . Pat Bradley, the defending champion, shot a one-under-par 71. Nancy Lopez, who won the Los Coyotes tournament in 1989 and 1990, shot a 72. . . . Amy Alcott, who has 29 victories and needs one more to get in the LPGA Hall of Fame, shot a 73. . . . Betsy King is in a challenging position with a 68, equaling Meg Mallon’s score. . . . Brandie Burton eagled the par-five, 455-yard third hole, hitting a four-iron to within one foot of the cup.