Golf: Ladies in style

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT COAST - Duffy Waldorf of the PGA Tour had the craziest shot

of the day, while his celebratory chest bump with partner Tom Lehman in

the Hyundai Team Matches at Pelican Hill Golf Club will be a lasting

memory.

But, for consecutive postseason victories, Juli Inkster and Dottie

Pepper of the LPGA Tour have a style all their own.

In the longest of three championship matches Sunday with the PGA Tour,

Senior PGA Tour and LPGA Tour, Pepper sank an 8-foot birdie putt on the

third hole of a playoff to give her and Inkster their fourth straight

match-play title (in five years). The duo defeated Annika Sorenstam and

Lorie Kane.

“The big thing for the two of us,” Pepper said, “is that I don’t think

anybody hates to lose more.”

Pepper and Inkster are 14-3 now in their careers as match-play

partners.

“You keep digging yourself into a hole and you just find a way to get

back out of it,” added Pepper, who made four birdies, including the

capper at the par-5 No. 17 (506 yards), which was used as the third

playoff hole.

After 18 holes, the LPGA Tour match was all square, forcing the ladies

foursome back to the par-5 No. 1 on the Ocean North Course for the first

playoff hole, then they played No. 16 and 17.

“We just found a way,” Inkster said. “That was a big birdie (by

Pepper) on 14, because we were two down with five (holes) left.”

Last year, Pepper and Inkster beat Karrie Webb and Kelly Robbins in

the finals at Pelican Hill.

Before the event’s one-year hiatus in 1998, Inkster and Pepper won the

Team Matches in ’97 with a championship victory over Nancy Lopez and

Laura Davies, and in ’96 topped Tammie Green and Robbins in the finals.

“I don’t think we’ve dominated (the Team Matches),” said Inkster. “But

we always come here and play really solid golf and play really well.”

Pepper’s back-to-back birdies at 14 and 15 squared the match, then on

the 21st hole she pulled out a sand wedge and set up the clinching birdie

putt.

“The toughest decision out there today was when I said to Juli that I

should putt first (on the decisive playoff hole),” Pepper said. “As it

turned out, it was the right decision. As a team you know, or we know

that you should always have the harder putt go first and finish with the

easier one if you can.

“The real key to our day was being able to get two balls on the greens

and putting for birdie. It started with the first hole and went

throughout the tournament.”

On the PGA Tour side, Waldorf drained a 5-foot birdie putt on the

second hole of a playoff to lift him and Lehman to a 1-up victory over

defending champions Fred Couples and Mark Calcavecchia.

Waldorf and Lehman birdied 11 holes in their match, including the last

four as neither team could gain a lead of more than one hole.

“The key to the match was that no one ever got more than one up,”

Lehman said.

Waldorf said players also can make mistakes and still prosper.

“And you are able to shake off a bad hole because if you shoot a high

number it’s just one hole lost,” said Waldorf, who celebrated the win

with chest bump, something he and Lehman did two previous times,

including earlier in the match.

Waldorf’s tee shot on the par-4 No. 5 (443 yards) hit the cement cart

path and “kept going and going ... it was about a 500-yard drive, with

about 250 yards of roll.”

Waldorf’s ball landed about 50 yards past the green, and finally came

to rest on a cart-path curb with nowhere to drop because of adjacent

shrubbery.

“I tried to left hand (a shot) off the path,” said Waldorf.

On the Senior PGA Tour, Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson defeated Bruce

Fleisher and David Graham, 4 and 2.

In addition to the $200,000 first prize, each of the six players from

the three winning teams won a Hyundai automobile.

The $1.2 million event is the only team match-play format on the

professional tours. The Ryder Cup uses team match-play scoring but does

not use a team format throughout. Match play scoring is determined by the

lowest score per team on each hole. The team winning the most holes wins

the match.