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.
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